On December 5, 2018 the "Patent Law Amendment (Draft) of the People's Republic of China” was passed at the State Council Executive Meeting.

It’s decided that a new round of 23 reform measures will be applied to wider scope nationwide, which will mainly include:

a) Strengthening the incentives for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. The management personnel and scientific research personnel of public institutions are allowed to hold equity in the form of “technical stocks + cash stocks”.

b) Innovative technology and financial services, which provide financing channels to small and medium-sized technology enterprises, including asset-light and unprofitable enterprises; promoting the investment of government equity funds in seed stage and start-up technology enterprises.

c) Improving scientific research management: promoting the use of state-owned scientific research equipment in a market-oriented manner to achieve open sharing and establishing a mechanism for error tolerance in decision-making.

The draft will be submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for deliberation.

(Source: China Government Network)

38 governmental departments including China's National Development and Reform Commission recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Joint Disciplinary Actions against Seriously Dishonest Entities in the Field of Intellectual Property (Patents). 6 kinds of conducts including repeated patent infringements and non-compliance will be considered as seriously dishonest in IP field (notably patent) and face cross-sectoral joint punishment.

According to the memorandum, a total of 33 joint disciplinary measures will be imposed, by which, not only the relevant seriously dishonest conducts will be recorded in the credit information system, the acting entities will face inadmissibility of applying for issuance of corporate bonds, restriction on establishment of financial institutions, restriction on purchase of real estate and state-owned property transactions. (Source: China Radio Network)

According to WIPO Indicators annual report issued recently, 3.17 million patent applications were filed globally in 2017 continuing the growth in the 8th consecutive year, up 5.8%. 　　

The data shows that in 2017, the total number of trademark applications worldwide was 12.39 million, and the total number of applications for industrial designs was 1.24 million. China ranked first in both the above.

In addition, global plant variety filings increased by 11.7% in 2017 to 18,490; and according to the data from 82 national and regional authorities, there were approximately 59,500 protected geographical indications (GIs) in 2017.

Meanwhile, Asia remained as the most active area for patent filing. In 2017, patent applications received by Asian country offices accounted for 65.1% of the total global applications – a significant increase from 49.7% in 2007. (Source: Science and Technology Daily)

“Provisions of Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in Examining Act Preservation Cases Involving Intellectual Property Disputes” were adopted by the Supreme People's Court Judicial Committee at its 1755th meeting on November 26, 2018 and shall come into force on January 1, 2019.

According to the Provisions, where a party of IP dispute applies for act preservation in accordance with Articles 100 and 101 of the Civil Procedure Law before judgment, ruling or arbitral award takes effect, the people's courts shall accept the case.

Where the licensee of an IP license contract applies for preliminary injunction of IP infringement, the licensee of an exclusive license contract may apply to the people's court separately; the licensee of the sole license contract may apply separately if the right holder does not; the licensee of a common license contract may apply separately if the IP right holder authorizes the licensee to file a lawsuit in licensee’s name. (Source: China Supreme People's Court website)

Recently, Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of State Intellectual Property Office of China (TRAB) has further improved its system for public retrieval of decisions on review of trademark refusals, with specimen of the reviewed marks and cited marks available by clicking the trademark number.

(Source: China Intellectual Property News)

According to the work statistics announced by China Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB).

From January to November 2018, a total of 284,208 review applications for various types were accepted, a year-on-year increase of 50.60%. Among them, there were 246,651 applications for refusal review, an increase of 53.53%, and 37,557 cases involving two parties, an increase of 33.85% over the same period of last year.

From January to November 2018, a total of 232,214 review decisions of various types were issued, with an increase of 49.76%. At present, the average processing time for a refusal review case has been controlled within 7 months for 5 consecutive months.

(Source: China Trademark Review and Adjudication Board)

As announced by China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), the trademark registration certification publicity system went online on November 27 and the electronic serving of trademark registration certificate comes into service. Thus far an integrated “trademark online service system” covering electronic filing of application, electronic serving of certificates, electronic response, and public retrieval of registration certificates has been successfully established to facilitate fast and smooth trademark application.

Developed upon the former trademark online application system, the trademark online service system now can serve six major functions: online search, application, documents serving, publication, payment, and public retrieval of trademark certificate. And it can be accessed on the front page of the Trademark Office official website.

The State Council of P.R. China announced the revised Patent Agency Regulations (the “Regulations”), which will take effect on March 1, 2019.

The "Regulations" implemented in 1991 played a positive role in regulating patent agency conducts and promoting the development of patent undertaking. With the continuous development of market economic system, China patent agency industry has undergone substantial changes. The revised "Regulations" have updated and improved the relevant policies in respects of patent agency entry, practice standards and service supervision. (Source: Xinhua News)

Per the No. 286 announcement made by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), a new version of patent certificate and official copy enters into used from December 4, 2018 and the relevant details are as below:

1. For patents granted on and after December 4, 2018 (inclusive), the new version of patent certificate and official copy will be applied.

2. For patents granted before December 4, 2018, the old version of patent certificate and official copy shall be applied.

3. Both versions have the same equal legal effect. Patent certificates and their official copies already issued in the old version are not required to be replaced with the new version, unless otherwise specified.

4. In addition to some changes in layout, the new version has added QR code and the information of the applicant, inventor or designer on the back of the certificate. (Source: CNIPA official website)

China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) and Japan Patent Office jointly decided to extend the China-Japan Patent Examination Highway (PPH) pilot for another five years effective from November 1, 2018 to October 31, 2023.

Unitalen client Tencent’s 微信 / WeChat is one of the most well-known mobile app for instant messaging. The Defendant,深圳微信食品公司 (Shenzhen Weixin Foods Co., Ltd.), was registered in 2015 and opened a series of restaurants, offline supermarkets, online malls using the name of “微信食品 Wechat Food”, taking advantage of the brand value of 微信 and Wechat in their franchise operation and gaining huge amount of illegal profit. Even after being sued by Tencent, the Defendant continued to expand the scope of infringement activities, and used “微信食品” logo to open logistics industrial parks, office buildings, hotels, etc. throughout the country.

In the verdict issued by Beijing IP Court over the above trademark infringement and unfair competition dispute, it is decided that

1.The Defendant shall immediately cease its infringement of the well-known trademarks 微信 and “Wechat”;

2.The Defendant shall immediately stop using the current company name and change name within 10 days;

3.The Defendant shall compensate Tencent for 10 million yuan’s economic loss. 　　

Unitalen was entrusted by UnitedCreative to defend in several patent infringement suits lodged by the patentee of China Patent No. ZL 201310074343.8 “A kind of LED advertising light box” (The patent as dispute). After thorough study and prior art search, Unitalen attorneys believed the patent at dispute lacks inventiveness and applied for invalidation of the same with the Patent Reexamination Board who made the decision that patent at dispute shall be invalidated in whole. The swift victory in patent invalidation forced the patentee to withdraw a number of patent infringement suits based on the patent at dispute. 　　

Entrusted by a Chinese individual patentee, Wang lianxi, Unitalen filed two civil suits concerning the ownership dispute of two Chinese medicine patents. The cases lasted for a period of 3 years involving 6 public hearings, one signature verification and several suspension applications. In the court verdict, it is determined that

1) The transfer of the patents at dispute from the plaintiff to the defendant was based on the Application for Change in Bibliographic Data and Agreement of Change submitted by the defendant, but according to the signature verification opinion, the Agreement of Change was not signed by the plaintiff; and there is no evidence proving the plaintiff had entrusted any third party to sign the agreement. Therefore, plaintiff’s request that the transfer is invalid shall be upheld.

2) Since the first transfer from the plaintiff to the defendant is invalid, the defendant shall have no right to dispose the patents at dispute. Therefore, the transfer from the defendant to a third-party company and from this company to another company are also invalid.

Accordingly, the court decides that the two patents at dispute shall belong to the plaintiff, Unitalen client, and that the transfer of the patents from the plaintiff to the defendant as well as the further transfers shall be invalid. 　　

On December 4, 2018, the Supreme People's Court announced the second batch of typical cases of protecting property rights and other legitimate rights and interests of entrepreneurs, including the trademark infringement and unfair competition case of Beijing Huiyuan Food & Beverage Co., Ltd. represented by Unitalen vs Heze Huiyuan Canned Food Co., Ltd., which was the only IP related case. Earlier, this case was also selected as the “50 typical IP cases of the Supreme People’s Court in 2017”.

For more details on the case: Supreme Court ordered 10M Yuan Indemnity for Unitalen Client in a Trademark Infringement Case

The “International IP Layout Strategy Summit” hosted by Dongguan Municipal IP Protection Association and Unitalen was successfully held December 2018.

The summit invited experienced Spanish patent attorneys and lawyers to share insights on IP market and layout strategies in Europe and Latin America to guide Chinese companies in achieving their business goals in the complicated European IP system with lower risks. The summit also invited IP executives from Fortune 500 companies to share and advise on the corporate IP deployment practice.

Unitalen partner Ray Zhao was invited to give lectures to the 2018 freshmen of the “WIPO - Tongji University Joint Training in IP Law (Design) Master Program”. This is the second consecutive year that Mr. Zhao lectured as a part-time professor for the master's program at the college.

▲上海国际知识产权学院感谢信

The 20th China Patent Award Presentation Ceremony co-organized by National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was held in Beijing in December 2018.

During this session, 30 Chinese Patent Gold Awards, 10 Chinese Design Gold Awards, 59 Chinese Patent Silver Awards, 15 Chinese Design Silver Awards, 695 Chinese Patent Excellence Awards, and 61 Chinese Design Excellence Awards were selected. 31 patents represented by Unitalen Agency were awarded, among which, the invention patent of “a Data Security Exchange Method, Device, Node and System” of the People's Liberation Army Information Engineering University won Patent Gold Award; 3 invention and utility model patents won Patent Silver Award, and 27 invention and utility model patents won Excellence Award.

China Patent Award is the highest award in the field of Chinese patents, which is jointly issued by the CNIPA and the WIPO.

The Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration (SCTA) officially released a new list of arbitrators at home and abroad on December 23, 2018. Mr. Li Yongbo, a partner of Unitalen, was once again appointed as the new arbitrator of SCIA (also known as High-tech IP Arbitration Center Arbitrator), for a period of three years, from February 21, 2019 to February 20, 2022. This is the second time that Li Yongbo has been hired for the position.

The SCIA Council and its Arbitrators' Qualification Review and Conduct Inspection Committee had conducted multiple rounds of review on thousands of applicants from nearly 80 countries (regions) before the new roster of arbitrators was approved by the Council. In the next three years, Mr. Li Yongbo will continue to actively participate in SCIA's professional activities to handle arbitration cases independently, impartially and efficiently, and work with hundreds of arbitrators from 76 countries and regions to jointly build and maintain the important arbitration cooperation platform in the Asia-Pacific region.

The 2018 Global IP Ecology Congress (GIPC) organized by IPR Daily and Beijing Capital IP Services Association was held in Beijing on November 15. Unitalen, for the outstanding professional performance, won the honor of “2018 Top 10 China Patent Agency” again after receiving the award in 2017.

The 2018 GIPC themed at “new environemnt, new technology and new strategy” has attracted more than 800 IP professionals and experts from 15 countries and regions.

The 4th ECUPSL & Unitalen Cup Academic Competition hosted by East China University of Political Science and Law (ECUPSL) and sponsored by Unitalen was recently concluded with great success.

This competition is open to graduate students and outstanding undergraduates nationwide. Students are required to interpret the patent-related concepts with use of cases and literatures, to explore the specific factors in the granting of patents and the application of infringement, so as for them to grasp the real meaning of these concepts. In addition to sponsoring this academic competition for four times, Unitalen will also continue to provide the practical courses at ECUPSL for the cultication of more IP law talents.

As one of the 12th Shanghai Patent Series Weekly Events of 2018, Shanghai IP Service Center and Unitalen co-hosted a seminar on “Solutions and Approaches for IP Transformation and Application. Featuring two main topics,“Overseas IP Risk Management” and “Overseas IP Assets Acquisition”, the seminar attracted more than 200 IP managers from well-known businesses.

Unitalen partners Suhua Luo and Kunpeng Peng and IP lawyers from Korea, Japan and Germany delivered speeches on IP polices and regulations in US, Europe, Japan and Korea, addressing the most pressing problems faced by the Chinese businesses concerning IP mapping and overseas protection.