According to news reports from Chinese central government news services Xinhua and CCTV, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) held an administrative guidance meeting with 14 provincial intellectual property offices on May 28, 2021. The meeting focused on further regulating irregular patent application activity. At the meeting, CNIPA disclosed that a high proportion of irregular applications filed this year were filed through more than 1,400 Chinese patent firms (there were3,253 Chinese patent firms at the end of 2020, indicating …
China Releases Administrative Adjudication Measures for Major Patent Infringement Disputes Effective June 1, 2021
On May 28, 2021, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) has released the Administrative Adjudication Measures for Major Patent Infringement Disputes (重大专利侵权纠纷行政裁决办法). Administrative adjudication provides an alternative to litigation that can be much faster and less expensive than civil litigation but doesn’t provide for damages. The Measures set a deadline of 3 months to complete the adjudication from the date of filing. The Measures go into force June 1, 2021.
China Joins EUIPO’s TMview Enabling Easier Searching of Chinese Trademarks
On March 19, 2021, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) joined the European Union Intellectual Property Office’s (EUIPO) TMview trademark searching tool. TMview will include trademark data made available by CNIPA, taking the total number of trade marks in the search tool from 62 to over 90 million from 75 participating IP Offices. Over 32 million Chinese trademarks are now available in TMview to all users to search free of charge. TMview is available here: https://www.tmdn.org/tmview/#/tmview.
China’s President Xi Jinping Throws His Support Behind an Intellectual Property Rights Waiver for COVID Vaccines
On May 21, 2021, President Xi Jinping of China attended the Global Health Summit via video link in Beijing upon invitation and backed an initiative to waive intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines. He also stated China would support Chinese companies transferring vaccine-related technology to other developing countries and carry out joint production with them.