China IP Highlights: February 2021 (Issue 3).

To view the article in Chinese, please click here.

 

Laws & Regulations
 

SPC Issued Report of the Reform of Diversified Dispute Resolution Mechanism of China’s Courts 2015-2020
最高法发布《中国法院的多元化纠纷解决机制改革报告（2015-2020）》
 

Issue Date: 2021-02-20
 

On February 20, the Supreme People's Court held a press conference on the application of the mediation platform of the People’s Court and to issue the Report on the Reform of the Diversified Dispute Resolution Mechanism of Chinese Courts (2015-2020) (the “Report”).
 

The Report calls for the strengthening of communications between arbitration institutions, industry associations and mediation organisations, the promotion of third-party platforms to resolve civil disputes for intellectual property rights, simplifying litigation and arbitration processes, and standardising relevant legal processes and documents. The Report also supports arbitration and mediation institutions to perform their duties in evidence and property preservation in accordance with the law and form a convenient alternative dispute resolution mechanism for intellectual property. The Sichuan Court signed a cooperation agreement with the China (Sichuan) Intellectual Property Protection Center to establish a collaborative intellectual property protection mechanism to mediate patent-related intellectual property cases. Meanwhile, the Xinjiang Court focused on the use of various mediation methods to resolve conflicts, with agreement rates remaining relatively high.
 

The Intellectual Property Protection Department of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (“CNIPA”) also highlighted that the first batch of 167 IPR dispute mediation organizations and 1,094 mediators have been stationed in the mediation platform of the People's Court. In its next step, it will organize activities such as mediation training for IPR disputes, support mediation organizations for such disputes, and guide mediation organizations and mediators to carry out online mediations and continuously improve their effectiveness.
 

Source: http://www.court.gov.cn/zixun-xiangqing-287431.html

 

CNIPA Issued Measures for Standardising Patent Applications (Draft for Comments)
国知局发布《关于规范申请专利行为的办法（征求意见稿）》
 

Issue Date: 2021-02-10
 

Effective Date: 2021-02-10
 

Recently, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (“CNIPA”) issued a notice for public comments on the "Measures on Standardising Patent Applications (Draft for Comments)" (the “Draft Measures”) to ensure that the legislative purposes of the Patent Law on encouraging innovative activity, adhering to the principle of good faith, maintaining a fair and competitive business environment, and regulating patent application behaviour are realized.
 

Article 2 of the Draft Measures states that abnormal patent application behaviour has been conducted where an individual or entity, in the absence of real inventive and creative activity, individually or jointly conducts acts such as submitting various patent applications, acting as an agent for patent applications, and transferring patent rights for the purpose of making improper profits or fictitious innovative performances.
 

Specific acts include:
 

1. Simultaneously or successively submitting multiple patent applications that are obviously the same in terms of invention-creation content, or are essentially formed by a simple combination of different invention-creation features or elements;

2. The submitted patent application contains fabricated, forged or altered invention-creations, experimental data or technical effects, or plagiarising, simply replacing or patching up existing technology or designs;

3. The invention-creation submitted is obviously inconsistent with the applicant's actual research, development capability and resources;

4. The content of the invention-creation submitted is randomly generated mainly through computer programs or other technologies;

5. The content of the invention-creation is intentionally formed to evade patentability examination, which obviously does not conform to technical improvements or practical design, has no actual protection value, and is inferior, piled up, or unnecessary.

6. Multiple patent applications which are substantially related to or controlled by a specific applicant are submitted in a scattered, sequential way or filed in different places in order to evade the regulatory measures against irregular patent applications;

7. Multiple divisional applications based on a genuine patent application that is likely to be authorised are filed, but the applications have no essence in legal or technical necessity;

8. Not buying or selling patent rights for the purpose of implementing patent technology, design or other legitimate and reasonable legal purposes, or falsely changing the inventor or designer of the patent;

9. Patent agencies, patent attorneys, or other institutions or individuals who induce, abet or conspire with others, or know or should know that it is an abnormal patent application and act as an agent or help others to implement various types of abnormal patent applications;

10. Other abnormal patent application acts and related acts that violate the principle of good faith and disturb the normal order of patent work.
     

Source: https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/art/2021/2/10/art_75_156718.html

 

CNIPA Issued Measures for Administrative Adjudication of Early Settlement Mechanism on Drug Patent Disputes (Draft for Comments)

国知局发布《药品专利纠纷早期解决机制行政裁决办法（征求意见稿）》

Issue Date: 2021-02-09

Effective Date: 2021-02-09

In order to implement the requirements on the establishment of a drug patent linkage system in the Opinions on Strengthening Intellectual Property Protection issued by the Central Office and the State Office, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (“CNIPA”) recently issued the Measures for Administrative Ruling on Early Resolution Mechanism of Drug Patent Disputes (Draft for Public Comments) for public comment until 27 March 2021.

The Measures contain 22 articles in total, providing detailed provisions on the conditions for parties to request the CNIPA to make administrative rulings on pharmaceutical patent disputes, application materials, and  procedures and ways for the CNIPA to handle such matters.

Source: https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/art/2021/2/9/art_75_156702.html

 

IP News

SPP Released Statistics on Intellectual Property Crimes in Recent Five Years
最高检发布近五年知识产权犯罪统计数据 

Date: 2021-02-18

Between 2016 and 2020, prosecutors across the PRC approved the arrest of 28,000 suspects in more than 16,300 cases for crimes involving intellectual property rights, examined and prosecuted 65,000 suspects in more than 30,000 cases involving crimes infringing intellectual property rights, and filed more than 23,000 cases involving 45,000 suspects for public prosecution. National procuratorial organs accepted 495 civil supervision cases and 205 administrative supervision cases involving intellectual property rights, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate alone or jointly with other departments supervised 177 intellectual property cases.  In addition, the Intellectual Property Office directly participated in the research, consultation and handling of key cases, such as the "QVOD Player" case, the "2-15" series of Chinese New Year movie infringement and piracy cases, the series of counterfeit famous painting cases, and issued 82 typical cases on intellectual property protection.

Source: http://www.nipso.cn/onews.asp?id=52134

 

Nandi (Landy) Jiang, Partner, Rouse

ljiang@lushenglawyers.com