CHINA PATENT & TRADEMARK LAW OFFICE
  • Home
  • About
  • IP Services
    • Trademark
    • Patent
    • Utility Model
    • Design
    • Copyright
  • Translation
  • News
    • Why do you need to register a trademark in China
    • What do you need to do to register a Chinese trademark
    • The Difference Between Copyright, Trademark and Patent
    • How And Why To Trademark In China
    • How do I protect myself from Intellectual Property Theft in China
    • How To Protect Your Intellectual Propery (IP) Rights In China
    • 7 Steps to Protect Your Intellectual Property in China
    • China is strengthening intellectual property protection
    • What should a foreign business know about filing a trademark in China
    • A Guide to the Chinese Trademark Registration Process
    • Why you should file your trademark in China now
    • Why is a Trademark Watch Important
    • Differences Between Trademark and Copyright
    • Avoiding IP Infringement with Chinese Sourcing
    • Cracking down trademark squatters under amended trademark law in China
    • How China is acting to combat bad faith trademarks
    • Intellectual Property protection when doing business in China
    • China's intellectual property rights protection improved to create a sound business environment
    • China’s race to become global intellectual property leader
    • China strengthens intellectual property rights protection prior to Beijing 2022
    • Important Trademark Development from China for 2022: What US Brand Owners Need to Know
    • How to Protect Trademarks in China
    • A simple guide to intellectual property in China
    • An Overview of the Latest Amendment to the Chinese Patent Law
    • What We Do When Trademark Squatters Get Smarter in China
    • The most important patent and IP business developments in China in 2021
    • A simple guide to trademark registration in China
    • Protecting your intellectual property in China
    • How To Enforce Intellectual Property Rights In China
    • What China’s new patent laws mean for life sciences
    • China extends lead over U.S. in global patents filings, U.N. says
    • What Do China’s High Patent Numbers Really Mean
    • How to Protect Your Intellectual Property Rights in China
    • Protecting your intellectual property in China
    • Procedure of filing trademark in China
    • The Importance of Having a Chinese Brand Name
    • Why Does Hong Kong Attract International Businesses
    • What’s the Difference Between Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks
    • How to initiate a trademark infringement civil proceedings in China
    • How to Brand your products for the Huge China Market and Reduce Your Risk
    • 8 Trademark Mistakes Your Start-Up Must Avoid
    • What’s the Difference Between OEM and ODM Products
    • What the amendment to Article 4 of the Chinese Trademark Law means for bad-faith trademark filings
    • China starts rebuff of various metaverse trademark applications amid rush to hype the internet’s next generation
    • China, US and Hong Kong trademarks – A quick guide
    • Working with Chinese Trademark Agencies – A Dangerous Game, or Delicate Tightrope
    • China will improve its IP system
    • 12 Intellectual property Protection Tip
    • How to protect your brand in China
    • China Trademark And Brand Development Index 2021: Which Are China's Top Provinces
    • Must I Register My Company Name as a Trademark in China?
    • What You Need to Know About China Trademark Registration as a Foreigner
    • How to File a Trademark in China
    • How to Register a Patent in China
    • How to effectively deal with the preemptive registered trademark in China
    • China’s Trademark Regime: How to Protect Your Brand in the Mainland
    • China Issues Stricter Rules on Trademark Use
    • News
    • News
  • Contact

The Fourth Amendment to the Chinese patent law will become effective on June 1, 2021.  The Patent Law of the People’s Republic of China, originally established in 1985, had its last amendment in 2008.  Although the new amendment of the Patent Law is still pending implementation and the details awaiting clarification from the next version of patent examination guidelines, the amendment shows that Chinese patent law is moving towards harmonization with the laws of most other major markets.  We highlight a number of the notable changes below.
Pharmaceutical Patents
Amended Art. 76[1] introduces a patent linkage system.  It enables an applicant or patentee of a pharmaceutical patent to challenge a generic drug for patent infringement by initiating a declaratory judgement (DJ) action of patent infringement against the generic during the its regulatory approval process with the China Food and Drug Administration (“CFDA”).  The DJ action may potentially suspend the regulatory approval process of the generic.  Also, the establishment of a system, similar to the “Orange Book” in the United States, i.e., a Chinese drug and patent recordation platform, has been delegated to CFDA.

Amended Art. 42[2] provides an opportunity for an applicant of a pharmaceutical patent to obtain patent term adjustment of up to 5 years to compensate for the regulatory approval process.  For those patents receiving the five-year extension, the total effective term of the patent shall not exceed 14 years from the date of issuance.
Design Patents
Significantly, amended Art. 2[3] allows protection of partial designs, i.e., design patents in China will cover a whole or a part of a product.  This amendment aligns Chinese patent law closer to the rules in other major jurisdictions, such as the rules in the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, Japan, and Korea.  But it remains unclear whether China will eventually allow the use of broken lines.  Under the current practice, for example, an environmental article, such as a mobile phone, is required to be drawn in solid lines, even if a GUI on the mobile phone screen is the only claimed subject matter.  The good news is, according to the draft of the rules for the Implementation Regulation of the Patent Law (November 27, 2020, public comment solicitation ended[4]), a partial design shall be depicted with a combination of broken lines and solid lines, or using other ways to indicate the scope of protection.

Amended Art. 42 also prolongs the term of protection for design patents from 10 years to 15 years from the filing date of the application.
Infringement Damages
Amended Art. 71[5] of the Chinese Patent Law promises that the rules on patent infringement damages are undergoing steady and patentee-friendly changes.  The changes include: (i) increasing statutory damages (from RMB 10,000~1,000,000 to RMB 30,000~5,000,000), (ii) introducing punitive damages for willful infringements of serious circumstances, up to five times the damages determined in accordance with the law, and (iii) shifting the burden of proving damages in patent infringement actions (if the infringer fails to provide acceptable evidence, then the court may refer to the claims and evidence from the patentee to determine damages).
Other Notable Changes
Some other notable changes include: (i) amended Art. 70[6] enables the China National Intellectual Property Administration to determine patent infringement disputes of significant national impact, (ii) amended Art. 24[7] allows a 6-month disclosure grace period for non-novelty destroying publications that covers early publications made for the public interest in a national emergency or extraordinary situations occurring in China, (iii) amended Arts. 50 - 51[8] allow patentees to file a withdrawable declaration to implement an open license with the benefit of reduction or exemption of patent annuities, and (iv) amended Art. 47[9] extends the statute of limitation for patent infringement lawsuits from 2 years to 3 years. 
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • About
  • IP Services
    • Trademark
    • Patent
    • Utility Model
    • Design
    • Copyright
  • Translation
  • News
    • Why do you need to register a trademark in China
    • What do you need to do to register a Chinese trademark
    • The Difference Between Copyright, Trademark and Patent
    • How And Why To Trademark In China
    • How do I protect myself from Intellectual Property Theft in China
    • How To Protect Your Intellectual Propery (IP) Rights In China
    • 7 Steps to Protect Your Intellectual Property in China
    • China is strengthening intellectual property protection
    • What should a foreign business know about filing a trademark in China
    • A Guide to the Chinese Trademark Registration Process
    • Why you should file your trademark in China now
    • Why is a Trademark Watch Important
    • Differences Between Trademark and Copyright
    • Avoiding IP Infringement with Chinese Sourcing
    • Cracking down trademark squatters under amended trademark law in China
    • How China is acting to combat bad faith trademarks
    • Intellectual Property protection when doing business in China
    • China's intellectual property rights protection improved to create a sound business environment
    • China’s race to become global intellectual property leader
    • China strengthens intellectual property rights protection prior to Beijing 2022
    • Important Trademark Development from China for 2022: What US Brand Owners Need to Know
    • How to Protect Trademarks in China
    • A simple guide to intellectual property in China
    • An Overview of the Latest Amendment to the Chinese Patent Law
    • What We Do When Trademark Squatters Get Smarter in China
    • The most important patent and IP business developments in China in 2021
    • A simple guide to trademark registration in China
    • Protecting your intellectual property in China
    • How To Enforce Intellectual Property Rights In China
    • What China’s new patent laws mean for life sciences
    • China extends lead over U.S. in global patents filings, U.N. says
    • What Do China’s High Patent Numbers Really Mean
    • How to Protect Your Intellectual Property Rights in China
    • Protecting your intellectual property in China
    • Procedure of filing trademark in China
    • The Importance of Having a Chinese Brand Name
    • Why Does Hong Kong Attract International Businesses
    • What’s the Difference Between Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks
    • How to initiate a trademark infringement civil proceedings in China
    • How to Brand your products for the Huge China Market and Reduce Your Risk
    • 8 Trademark Mistakes Your Start-Up Must Avoid
    • What’s the Difference Between OEM and ODM Products
    • What the amendment to Article 4 of the Chinese Trademark Law means for bad-faith trademark filings
    • China starts rebuff of various metaverse trademark applications amid rush to hype the internet’s next generation
    • China, US and Hong Kong trademarks – A quick guide
    • Working with Chinese Trademark Agencies – A Dangerous Game, or Delicate Tightrope
    • China will improve its IP system
    • 12 Intellectual property Protection Tip
    • How to protect your brand in China
    • China Trademark And Brand Development Index 2021: Which Are China's Top Provinces
    • Must I Register My Company Name as a Trademark in China?
    • What You Need to Know About China Trademark Registration as a Foreigner
    • How to File a Trademark in China
    • How to Register a Patent in China
    • How to effectively deal with the preemptive registered trademark in China
    • China’s Trademark Regime: How to Protect Your Brand in the Mainland
    • China Issues Stricter Rules on Trademark Use
    • News
    • News
  • Contact