On April 22, 2024, China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) held a press conference for Intellectual Property Publicity Week, introducing the overall situation of judicial protection of intellectual property rights in courts across the country in 2023. The SPC also released the Status of Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in Chinese Courts (2023) (中国法院知识产权司法保护状况(2023年)). Some highlights from the press conference and report follow. A total of 544,126 IPR cases in various types were newly received in 2023, with 544,112 concluded. ... The post China’s Supreme People’s Court Hold IP P ..read more

China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) recently released first quarter grant data for 2024. For the first quarter, the number of invention patents granted was 251,882 , a year-on-year increase of 54.6%. The number of utility model grants was 419,451 , a year-on-year decrease of 30.1%. The number of authorized designs was 146,270 , a year-on-year decrease of 20.2%. Note that utility model grants in 2023 Q1 were already down over 21% year-on-year and utility model grants were down 25.5% ... The post Chinese Utility Model Grants Down 30%, Invention Patent Grants Up Almost 5 ..read more

Per a filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) on April 2, 2024, France’s Arkema S.A. sued two subsidiaries of Shanghai Huayi Group Co., Ltd. for patent infringement requesting 430 million RMB and an injunction. Arkema filed the patent litigation at the Shanghai Higher People’s Court alleging the subsidiaries infringed Chinese patents 200780034079.8 and 201210384253.4 related to processes for producing acrylic acid. Arkema S.A. is a publicly listed, multi-national manufacturer of specialty materials, headquartered in Colombes, near Paris, France. It ... The post France’s Arkema S.A. Sues ..read more

China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) announced on April 11, 2024 that it will join the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Improvement Initiative (PPH改进倡议) in cooperation with the IP5 (China, the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea). The Initiative’s goal is to provide a more predictable examination cycle. Accordingly, CNIPA will aim for an average time to issuance of a first office action from grant of a PPH request at 3 months. Similarly, CNIPA will aim for an average time ... The post China’s National Intellectual Property Administration Joins the Patent Prose ..read more

On April 10, 2024 China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued the Annual Work Guidelines for Promoting High-Quality Development of Intellectual Property Rights (2024) (推动知识产权高质量发展年度工作指引(2024)). Per CNIPA, the Guidelines were formulated to “further improve intellectual property work in 2024 and accelerate the promotion of high-quality development of intellectual property.” The main objectives of the Guidelines include improving the quality of patent applications; increase patent conversion; improve patent enforcement including guidance for overseas intellectual property ..read more

On April 8, 2024 the Shanghai Hongkou District People’s Court announced the sentencing of three defendants for the crime of of selling goods with counterfeit registered trademarks, specifically, Maotai, a brand of baijiu, the national liquor of China.  As of January 2022, the police had seized more than 200 bottles of the counterfeit Maotai with a total value of over 500,000 RMB at two stores. Per the Court, defendants Da Liu and Xiao Liu originally did business together and jointly ... The post 3.5-Year Prison Sentence for Counterfeiting Maotai, the National Drink of China appeared first ..read more

On March 26, 2024, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration released its 2024 budget (国家知识产权局2024年部门预算). Highlights includes 5.76 billion RMB (~$700 million USD) for patent acceptance and approval; CNIPA expects to examine over 2.026 million patent applications with an examination period of less than 16 months; and total new applications (including invention and utility model applications) is expected to be equal or greater than 4.79 million applications. Other highlights: the number of people who have passed the patent agent qualification exam ... The post China’s National Intell ..read more

On February 23, 2024 China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) released the Supreme People’s Court Summary of Intellectual Property Court Judgments (2023) (最高人民法院知识产权法庭裁判要旨摘要(2023)). Per the SPC, the summary was formed “to highlight the judicial concepts, trial ideas, and adjudicative methods of the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court in technical intellectual property rights and monopoly cases.” The Tribunal selected 96 cases from the 4,562 cases concluded in 2023, and summarized 104 key points as follows. I. Patent authorization and ... The post China’s Supreme People’s C ..read more

According to data released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on March 7, 2024, China filed 69,610 Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications in 2023 – a small decrease of 0.6% from the previous year. This is the first year-on-year decrease from China since 2002.  The United States came in second with 55,678 applications, which represents a 5.3% drop on 2022. Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies remained by far the top filer with 6,494 published PCT applications in 2023. Samsung ... The post China International Patent Filings Down 0.6% in 2023 But Maintains Lea ..read more

On March 8, 2024 at the 14th National People’s Congress, Zhang Jun, President of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC), submitted the SPC’s Work Report summarizing the accomplishments of the past year.  With respect to intellectual property, the Report stated 490,000 intellectual property cases were concluded, and punitive damages were applied to 319 cases. One paragraph of the report was dedicated to intellectual property: Intellectual property rights shall be strictly protected in accordance with the law. The number of intellectual property ... The post China’s Supreme People’s Court Release ..read more