On November 17, 2022 the Supreme People’s Court of China (no link provided as China is currently geoblocking the SPC website) held a press conference to announce the release of of people’s courts’ anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition typical cases. The release is to “strengthen anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition judging.” Of the antitrust (anti-monopoly) cases, two are directly related to intellectual property and are summarized here including one an AstraZeneca reverse payment case. The anti-unfair competition cases will be summarized in a separate article.
Mirati Therapeutics Sues China’s InventisBio for 99 Million RMB in Trade Secret Theft Case
Per a securities filing by InventisBio Co (益方生物科技（上海）股份有限公司) on November 16, 2022, Mirati Therapeutics sued InventisBio for 99 Million RMB (~$14 million USD) in a trade secret misappropriation case. Mirati requested an injunction, damages, and confirmation of ownership of certain patents and applications in a filing with the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court that was received by InventisBio on November 14, 2022. This case highlights the increased attention recently paid to trade secret misappropriation in China including a 60 million RMB …
Five-Year Prison Sentence for Selling $1.27 Million USD of Counterfeit Armani Watches in Shanghai Trademark Case
In an announcement from the Shanghai High People’s Court on November 3, 2022, the People’s Court of Chongming District, Shanghai Municipality sentenced defendant Ding to imprisonment of five years for the crime of counterfeiting a registered trademark and imposed a fine of 1.5 million RMB (~$209 thousand USD). Ding had sold 58,813 counterfeit watches bearing the Emporio Armani trademark having a value of 9,153,683 RMB (~$1.27 million USD).
China’s National Intellectual Property Administration Releases New Draft of the Patent Examination Guidelines
On October 31, 2022, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released another draft of the Patent Examination Guidelines, which is somewhat analogous to the US Patent & Trademark Office’s (USPTO) Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP). Some highlights include explaining how patent term adjustment and patent term extension will work; providing for partial designs; late priority claims; and deletes the 15-day mail delay for electronically-delivered documents. Comments are due December 15, 2022, which may enable CNIPA to meet its target …