China to Further Crack Down on Malicious Trademark Applications and Irregular Patent Applications; Potentially Raise Filing Fees

Posted on Categories Patents, Trademarks

On March 11, 2021, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued the on Notice on Deepening the Reform of “Delegation, Administration, and Service” in the Field of Intellectual Property, Optimizing the Innovation Environment and Business Environment (国家知识产权局关于深化知识产权领域“放管服”改革优化创新环境和营商环境的通知).  The Notice has a total of 16 Articles including reducing trademark and patent examination time; improving the quality of trademark and patent applications; improving the efficiency of intellectual property (IP) public services; enhancing IP protection capabilities; strengthening the supervision of the IP …

China’s National Intellectual Property Administration Starts Blocklist for Malicious Trademark Applicants

Posted on Categories Patents, Trademarks

On May 8, 2021, the State Council Information Office held a briefing on intellectual property.  At the briefing, He Zhimin, deputy director of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), stated that the CNIPA firmly opposed and promptly cracked down on malicious trademark registration and “irregular” (or abnormal) patent applications.  He stated, “Since the beginning of this year, in terms of trademark substantive examination, [CNIPA] has rejected more than 10,000 malicious trademark registration applications that are not intended for use; …

China’s Supreme People’s Court Releases Top 10 Intellectual Property Cases in Chinese Courts in 2020

Posted on Categories Case, Patents

In follow up to the earlier release of the Top 10 Technical Intellectual Property (IP) Cases of 2020, the Supreme People’s Court of China has released the broader Top 10 Intellectual Property Cases in 2020 (2020年中国法院10大知识产权案件简介) on April 22, 2021.   This list, in addition to technical IP cases, includes non-technical IP cases such as a Red Bull trademark case; a Lego criminal copyright case; as well as the Xiaoi patent invalidation case, which later led to a $1.4 billion USD …

China Utility Model Patent Application Filings Up 29% in 2020; Foreign-Originated Chinese Invention Patent Application Filings Down 3%

Posted on Categories Design Patent, Patents, Trademarks, Utility Model

In the newly released China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) 2020 Annual Report (国家知识产权局2020年度报告)  the number of invention patent applications filed in China in 2020 was 1.497 million, a year-on-year increase of 6.9%. Among them, there were 1.345 million domestic invention patent applications filed, accounting for 89.8% of the total, a year-on-year increase of 8.1%; there were 152,000 foreign invention patent applications filed in China, accounting for 10.2% of the total, a year-on-year decrease of 3.0%.  Note China had ceased …