CNIPA Issues its Annual Report 2022
Release Date: 5 June 2023
CNIPA has released its Annual Report 2022, which highlights China’s accomplishments in intellectual property registration, exploitation, governmental services, and protection. The Report provides the following significant statistics.
First, intellectual property registrations. As of the end of 2022, there were 4.212 million valid invention patents, 42.672 million registered trademarks, 2,495 approved geographical indication products, 7,076 geographical indications registered as collective trademarks and certification trademarks, and 61,000 issued certificates of layout designs of integrated circuits. In 2022, China granted 798,000 invention patents, representing a year-on-year growth of 14.7%. Among these, domestic invention patents accounted for 87.1% with a total of 696,000. It registered 6.177 million trademarks, a year-on-year decrease of a20.2%. Of these, domestic registered trademarks accounted for 97.2% with a total of 6.002 million.
Secondly, China’s ability to exploit intellectual property has significantly improved. By the end of 2022, China had fostered 8,240 national intellectual property right template enterprises and supported the establishment of 33 intellectual property right operation platforms/centres. In 2022, the total amount of intellectual property royalties from cross-border licenses reached RMB 387.25 billion (approximately US$ 54.15 billion). From 2012 to 2022, China’s pledge financing of patents and trademarks totalled RMB 1.799 trillion (approx. US$ 251.58 billion). In 2022 alone, the pledge financing of patents and trademarks amounted to RMB 485.87 billion (approx. US$ 67.95 billion), marking a year-on-year growth of 30% and a continuous growth of over 40% for three years.
Thirdly, China’s governmental services for intellectual property have significantly developed. 99.72% of patent applications and 99.55% of trademark applications are filed electronically. The average review procedure for invention patents has been reduced to 16.5 months, with high-value invention patents reviewed in just 13 months. The average review procedure for trademark registration has been shortened to four months, while general trademark registration takes approximately seven months. The accuracy rate for invention patent reviews reached 93.4%, and the qualification rate for trademark reviews reached 97.6%.
Lastly, China’s protection of intellectual property has been strengthened. In 2022, 955,000 irregular patent applications were identified and action was taken against 372,100 malicious trademark registrations. Throughout the year, 58,000 cases of patent infringement were resolved, showing a year-on-year increase of 16.8%. Additionally, 71,000 applications for assistance in protecting rights were handled, and 88,000 mediation cases were accepted.
Source: China National Intellectual Property Administration
https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/module/download/down.jsp?i_ID=185538&colID=3249
” 2022 Annual Report of the State Intellectual Property Office” Released
Issue date: 2023-06-05
The State Intellectual Property Office released the 2022 annual report, summarizing my country’s important achievements in intellectual property creation, application efficiency, service level, and protection by 2022. The main data include:
First, my country has abundant intellectual property creation. By the end of 2022, my country had a total of 4.212 million valid invention patents, 42.672 million valid registered trademarks, a total of 2495 geographical indication products approved, 7076 registered geographical indications as collective marks and certification marks, and integrated circuit layout designs accumulatively issued. 61,000 certificates. In 2022, my country will authorize 798,000 invention patents, a year-on-year increase of 14.7%. Among them, 696,000 domestic invention patents were authorized, accounting for 87.1% of the total. In 2022, the number of trademark registrations in my country will be 6.177 million, a year-on-year decrease of 20.2%, of which 6.002 million are domestic trademark registrations, accounting for 97.2% of the total.
Second, the efficiency of my country’s intellectual property utilization has been significantly improved. By the end of 2022, my country has cultivated a total of 8,240 national intellectual property advantage demonstration enterprises, and supported the construction of 33 intellectual property operation platforms (centers). In 2022, my country’s total import and export of intellectual property rights fees will be 387.25 billion yuan. From 2012 to 2022, my country’s patent and trademark pledge financing totaled 1.799 trillion yuan. Among them, the patent and trademark pledge financing amount in 2022 reached 485.87 billion yuan, an average annual growth rate of 30%, and maintained a growth rate of more than 40% for three consecutive years.
Third, the level of my country’s intellectual property public services has been significantly improved. The electronic application rate for patents is 99.72%, and the electronic application rate for trademarks is 99.55%. The average review cycle for invention patents has been reduced to 16.5 months, and the review cycle for high-value invention patents has been reduced to 13 months. The average review period for trademark registration has been reduced to 4 months, and the trademark registration period for general cases has been reduced to 7 months. The accuracy rate of invention patent examination and conclusion reached 93.4%, and the pass rate of trademark examination and sampling inspection reached 97.6%.
Fourth, my country has strengthened the protection of intellectual property rights. In 2022, 955,000 new abnormal patent applications will be notified, and a total of 372,100 malicious trademark registrations will be cracked down. Throughout the year, 58,000 administrative cases of patent infringement disputes were handled, a year-on-year increase of 16.8%; 71,000 applications for rights protection assistance were handled, and 88,000 dispute mediation cases were accepted.
Source: State Intellectual Property Office 2023-06-05
News link: https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/module/download/down.jsp?i_ID=185538&colID=3249
The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) Issues Provisions on Prohibiting Abuses of Intellectual Property Rights to Exclude or Restrict Competition
Release Date: 29 June 2023
Effective Date: 1 August 2023
The Provisions on Prohibiting Abuses of Intellectual Property Rights to Exclude or Restrict Competition (‘Provisions’), revised and published by the SAMR, will come into effect on 1 August 2023.
The Provisions have been revised and improved to take account of the developments that have taken place in antitrust regulatory enforcement in recent years. Building on the original Provisions formulated in 2015, they focus on three aspects: first, they broaden the scope of “abuses of intellectual property rights to exclude or restrict competition” to encompass three primary forms of monopolistic practices – monopoly agreements, abuse of dominant market position, and concentration of undertakings. Secondly, the Provisions enhance the rules for identifying monopolistic practices related to the exercise of intellectual property rights. Drawing on the revised Anti-Monopoly Law in 2022, and considering the unique characteristics of intellectual property and recent regulatory practices, the Provisions provide clarity on the factors and additional restrictive conditions for identifying relevant markets, dominant market positions, relevant monopolistic practices, and the review of undertakings’ concentrations. Thirdly, the Provisions strengthen the regulation of typical and special monopolistic practices involving intellectual property. For example, they explicitly prohibit a patent pool entity or its members from engaging in monopolistic practices through exploitation of the patent pool. Additionally, undertakings in a dominant market position are prohibited from leveraging standard essential patents to engage in “patent holdup” and similar activities.
Source: State Administration for Market Regulation
https://www.samr.gov.cn/zw/zfxxgk/fdzdgknr/fgs/art/2023/art_e155397fbe5c4c05ad3c1838c1322ad2.html
The State Administration for Market Regulation issued the “Regulations on Prohibiting Abuse of Intellectual Property Rights to Eliminate and Restrict Competition”
Issue date: 2023-06-29
Effective date: 2023-08-01
The “Regulations on the Prohibition of Abuse of Intellectual Property Rights to Eliminate and Restrict Competition” (“Regulations”) revised and published by the State Administration for Market Regulation will come into force on August 1, 2023. In light of the new situation of anti-monopoly supervision and law enforcement in recent years, on the basis of the original regulations formulated in 2015, the “Regulations” have been revised and improved in three aspects: first, to expand the connotation of “abuse of intellectual property rights to exclude and restrict competition”, Comprehensive coverage of monopoly agreements, abuse of market dominance, and concentration of business operators. The second is to improve the identification rules for implementing monopolistic behavior by means of exercising intellectual property rights. According to the “Anti-Monopoly Law” revised in 2022, combined with the characteristics of intellectual property rights and regulatory reality, the “Regulations” refine and improve the consideration factors and additional restrictions on relevant markets, market dominance, relevant monopolistic behaviors, and the review of concentration of operators The determination rules of sexual conditions, etc. The third is to strengthen the regulation of typical and special monopolistic behaviors in the field of intellectual property rights, explicitly prohibiting patent pool entities and patent pool members from engaging in monopolistic behavior through pooling, and prohibiting operators with market dominance from using standard essential patents to implement “patent hijacking”, etc.
Source: State Administration for Market Regulation 2023-06-29
News link: https://www.samr.gov.cn/zw/zfxxgk/fdzdgknr/fgs/art/2023/art_e155397fbe5c4c05ad3c1838c1322ad2.html
Game Boosting App for ‘Honor of Kings’ Held to Constitute Unfair Competition
Date: 6 June 2023
Tencent brought an unfair competition action against Nanhai Beisheng Network Technology Co., Ltd (‘Beisheng’), alleging that the operation of a game-boosting App providing game boosting services in relation to Tencent’s game, Honor of Kings, constituted unfair competition.
The Court ruled in Tencent’s favour. It noted that Honor of Kings has a fair matching mechanism in place, which groups players together for online playing sessions and ensures a positive gaming experience for users. The game also strictly adheres to China’s regulations regarding anti-addiction measures for minors. The Defendant, Beisheng, operates a game-boosting App that seeks to gain illegal advantage by undermining Honor of Kings’ fair matching and balancing mechanism. It also interferes with the real-name authentication and anti-addiction measures for minors, thereby disrupting the orderly operation of the game market. Furthermore, the Defendant encourages users, including minors, to participate in boosting transactions, where a high-skilled player accesses the account of a lower-skilled player to increase the rank of the account for monetary gain, by offering cash back incentives. These practices constitute unfair competition.
The Court ordered Beisheng to cease its unlawful activity and compensate Tencent for economic loss and reasonable expenses, amounting to a total of RMB 985,000 (approx. US$ 137,931).
Source: IT Home
https://www.ithome.com/0/697/891.htm
The court found that the “King of Glory” power leveling APP destroyed the anti-addiction mechanism and constituted unfair competition
Date: 2023-06-06
Foshan Nanhai District Beisheng Network Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Beisheng Company”) operates an app that provides game leveling services for Tencent’s “Honor of Kings” game. Tencent sued Beisheng Company for its behavior to constitute unfair competition , Infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of Tencent.
The court held that the “Honor of Kings” game has a fair matching mechanism to ensure that users have a good gaming experience, and strictly implements the national requirements on preventing addiction to games for minors. Therefore, Tencent enjoys the competitiveness of the “Honor of Kings” game. rights and interests. However, the defendant provided commercial power-leveling services through the operation of the power-leveling app and obtained income from it, which undermined the game matching and balance mechanism of the fair competition of the game involved; interfered with the real-name mechanism established by the game involved and the anti-addiction mechanism for minors; disrupted the operation of online games and the order of competition . In addition, the defendant’s behavior of organizing users to conduct game leveling transactions (including providing game leveling services to minors) by issuing bills to return cash constituted unfair competition. Therefore, the court ordered Beisheng Company to stop the infringement and compensate Tencent Company for economic losses and reasonable expenses totaling 985,000 yuan.
Source: IT Home 2023-06-06
News link: https://www.ithome.com/0/697/891.htm
Rouse International and Lusheng Law Firm Jointly Release Research Report on Development and Protection of Intellectual Property for China Film-Video Industry (2022)
Date: 11 June 2023
On 11 June, at the Film Market Activity Section of the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival, Rouse International and its strategic partner, Lusheng Law Firm, jointly held a press conference to release their Research Report on the Development and Protection of Intellectual Property for China Film-Video Industry (2022).
First, the Report provides an overview of the intellectual property landscape in the film-video industry, including the scale of the copyright transaction and brand licensing market, the dual-track intellectual property protection system of administrative protection and judicial protection, as well as recent trends and hotspots in the industry, comprehensively demonstrating the close relationship between the film-video industry and intellectual property rights.
Secondly, the Report analyses some typical administrative and judicial cases in the domestic film-video industry in recent years, focusing on both the need for companies to ensure that they are not infringing the rights of others and the need to ensure that their rights are not being infringed by others.
Thirdly, the Report considers the operation of intellectual property and licensing generally in the film-video industry, on the one hand pointing out the importance of securing adequate protection for all the separate rights involved in film-video, while on the other, the importance of developments in intellectual property financing that have taken place globally. It discusses both the traditional methods of IP exploitation and financing and the additional methods that are now available.
Finally, the Report proposes suggestions on how to face challenges and grasp opportunities related to intellectual property during the whole life cycle of film-video programs, from idea submission and financing to production, promotion and distribution, as well as the later value realisation stage, helping film-video practitioners to strengthen their awareness of intellectual property protection and improve their utilisation of intellectual property.
At the press conference, two other topics were the subject of in-depth discussion. One, the influence of AI on film production and intellectual property, and the application and potential risks of AI technologies in various stages of film production, such as face restoration and scriptwriting. The other, development of the film licensing market in China.
Source: Rouse Intellectual Property Consulting
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/VvdwbgfPSiR5SxQ3wGgEHg
Rouse International and Lusheng jointly released the “Research Report on the Development and Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in China’s Film and Television Industry (2022) “
Date: 2023-06-11
On June 11, in the film market activity section of the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival, Rouse International (Rouse) and its strategic partner Rouse Law Firm released the “Research Report on the Development and Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in China’s Film and Television Industry (2022)” , and held a report conference.
The “Research Report on the Development and Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in China’s Film and Television Industry (2022)” first introduced the development of intellectual property rights in the film and television industry, including the market size of copyright transactions and brand authorization, the achievements of administrative and judicial “dual-track” protection, and recent new developments. Trends and new hotspots fully demonstrate the close relationship between the film and television industry and intellectual property rights. Secondly, the report deeply analyzes typical administrative cases and judicial disputes in the domestic film and television industry in the past two years, and summarizes the risks of intellectual property compliance and rights protection in the industry. In addition, the report analyzes the operation and authorization of intellectual property rights in the film and television industry, not only pointing out the importance of the rational distribution of intellectual property rights in film and television works, but also introducing the financing of intellectual property rights, and looking forward to the new path for the realization of the value of film and television intellectual property rights. Finally, the report puts forward corresponding suggestions for coping with intellectual property challenges and seizing opportunities from the entire life cycle of film and television works project establishment, investment, production, publicity and later value realization, in order to help film and television practitioners strengthen their awareness of intellectual property protection and improve their intellectual property rights. application level.
At the report conference, the relevant person in charge also conducted an in-depth sharing on two other topics. One is the prospect of AI on film production and intellectual property rights. This topic discusses the application of AI technologies such as face restoration and script writing in various aspects of film production, as well as possible intellectual property issues involved. The second is the film licensing market. This topic shares the current situation and shortcomings of my country’s film and television licensing industry, and puts forward suggestions on the operation, licensing, risks and countermeasures of intellectual property rights in the film and television industry.
Source: Rouse Intellectual Property Consulting 2023-06-11
News link: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/DuW_ocIVRmpfO9tRbcIJyw
For further information, please contact:
Nandi (Landy) Jiang, Partner, Rouse
ljiang@lushenglawyers.com
