On January 27, 2021, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) announced in the “Notice of the CNIPA on Further Strictly Regulating Patent Application Behavior” (国家知识产权局关于进一步严格规范专利申请行为的通知) the end of all patent subsidies by 2025. Subsidies for patent application filings and other stages of the patent prosecution process (e.g., requesting exam) will end by June 30, 2021. Only subsidies for granting of patents (including foreign patents) are allowed for now but local governments must cancel them by 2025. The timing of …
Biden was Inaugurated on January 20, 2021, His Name is Already Trademarked in China
The inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States took place on January 20, 2021. However, Chinese companies have been applying for his name as a trademark as far back as 2004. Trademark applications increased significantly as the election race heated up in 2020 with 18 trademarks applied for in 2020 for Biden in English. The Chinese transliteration of Biden – 拜登 – was also popular with a 108 trademark applications in total (with 20 of …
Shell Awarded 5.5 Million RMB in Chinese Trademark Infringement Case
On January 21, 2021, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court announced the awarding of 5.5 Million RMB (~$851 thousand USD) in damages and expenses to Shell International and Shell China for trademark infringement regarding automobile lubricants. The Court also awarded an injunction against the 5 defendants: corporations North Shell Company (北壳公司), Jianchi Company (剑驰公司) , Annaichi Company (安耐驰公司), and persons Wang and Song.
Top Patentees in China for 2020
According to an analysis by Incopat, corporate applicants accounted for about 67% of Chinese invention patents in 2020, among which Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.’s is by far the leader. College and university patentees accounted for about 22% with Zhejiang University continuing to rank number 1 for invention patents. The top foreign corporate patentee was Samsung Electronics at #9. The top American corporate patentee was Qualcomm at #16.