On March 31, 2022, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued the Second Batch of Guiding Cases for Administrative Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (第二批知识产权行政执法指导案例). Administrative enforcement provides for a second avenue for enforcement of intellectual property rights in China in addition to civil litigation. The Guiding Cases include 3 cases covering patent infringement, trademark infringement and design patent infringement.
China’s Supreme People’s Court: Patent Infringement Settlements Can Violate the Anti-Monopoly Law
In case (2021）最高法知民终1298号 recently highlighted by the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court of China (SPC), the SPC ruled that a settlement agreement to a patent infringement lawsuit constituted a horizontal monopoly agreement as the scope the agreement was not substantially related to the scope of protection of the patent in question.
3-Year Prison Sentence Affirmed for 3M Mask Counterfeiter in Shanghai’s Third Intermediate People’s Court
On March 25, 2022, the Shanghai Third Intermediate People’s Court announced the affirmance of an earlier ruling sentencing defendant Wu XX to 3-years imprisonment and a 100,000 RMB fine (~$15 thousand USD) for counterfeiting a registered trademark of 3M on masks. In a larger case last year, the same court upheld a sentence of 4.5-years imprisonment for counterfeiting registered trademarks for 3M on masks. The number of seized counterfeit 3M registered trademark masks in the instant case were about 1/10 …
China’s Trademark Office Releases 2021 Statistics: 482K Malicious Applications Rejected; 7 Months to Registration; Registrations Up 34% YoY
On March 23, 2022, the Trademark Office of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released a summary of statistics for 2021 in a document entitled 这些数字，让我们记住2021年！ Like the Patent Office of CNIPA cracking down on “irregular” patent applications, the TM Office rejected 482,000 trademark application for malicious registration not intended for use and preemptively rejected 1,628 malicious trademarks applications that harm social and public interests, and invalidated 1,729 registered trademarks ex officio. The preemptive rejections may be for Olympic-related …