On September 20 Beijing time, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2021. China ranks the 12^th place, ascending two spots from 2020.

China is edging closer to top 10

Since 2013, China has moved up the GII ranking steadily for 9 consecutive years with strong momentum.

In terms of the innovation input sub-index, China represents the global leader in two indexes, Trade, diversification, and market scale,and Knowledge workers.China ranks high in several subdivision indicators, including the score on PISA scales in reading, math and science, Domestic market scale, Percentage of firms offering formal training, Domestic industry diversification, Average expenditure of the top three global companies by R&D, Average score of QS university ranking, top 3, Industrial cluster development, Gross capital formation as percent of GDP, and GERD % financed by business.

In terms of innovation outputs, China's advantages are concentrated in Intangible assets, Knowledge creation, and Knowledge impact. Specifically, subdivision indicators such as native patent and trademark filings, and Creative goods exportsas percent of total trade are global leading indicators. In 2021, the sub-index of Knowledge diffusion has made significant progress Especially the subdivision indicator of Intellectual property receiptsas percent of total tradehas made continuous progress, indicating that China is gradually transforming from a large country of intellectual property in-licensing to a large country of intellectual property creation.

Global innovation landscape is fast-changing

According to the GII 2021, Switzerland ranks first for the 11^th consecutive year; Sweden, the United States, the United Kingdom, and South Korea rank 2^nd to 5^th respectively. China ranks 12^th, first among the middle-income economies, surpassing developed economies such as Japan, Israel, and Canada. South Korea moved from 10^th in 2020 to 5^th in 2021, with a distinct uptrend. Middle-income economies such as Turkey (41^st), Vietnam (44^th), and India (46^th) have risen significantly in the ranking in the past 10 years and are changing the global innovation landscape.

In the global ranking of "Top science and technology clusters", Tokyo-Yokohama in Japan, Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Guangzhou in China, Beijing, Seoul, and San Jose–San Francisco in the US rank in the top five. Compared with last year, the ranking of Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Guangzhou (2^nd) remains unchanged, while the rankings of Beijing (3^rd), Shanghai (8^th), Nanjing (18^th), Hangzhou (21^st), etc. all have distinctly increased.

(Source: the website of the CNIPA)

Intellectual Property Development & Research Center of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) recently released the Evaluation Report on China's Intellectual Property Development 2020. The Report includes two sets of evaluation index systems, the "National and Regional Intellectual Property Development Evaluation Index System" and the "International Comparison Index System of the Intellectual Property Development". The former includes 60 indicators such as creation, application, protection and environment, and the latter includes 45 indicators such as intellectual property capability, performance and environment.

According to the evaluation results of the Report, since the implementation of the Outline of the National Intellectual Property Strategy, China's comprehensive intellectual property strength has jumped. In 2020, the national comprehensive intellectual property development index increased from a base period value of 100 in 2010 to 304.7, representing an average annual growth rate of 11.8%. In particular, the intellectual property institutional environment has improved significantly.The national intellectual property environmental index has increased from a base period value of 100 in 2010 to 315.3 in 2020, with an average annual growth rate of 12.2%. The intellectual property legal system has been continuously improved, the service capabilities have been greatly improved, and the protection awareness has been significantly strengthened.

From the view of regional evaluation, the scores of intellectual property comprehensive development index of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang and Shandong rank in the top six respectively in 2020.

From the view of international comparison, the world ranking of China's intellectual property development level has jumped from the 17^th in 2015 to the 8^th in 2019.

(Source: the website of the CNIPA)

Recently, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) determined the list of 2021 national geographical indication product protection demonstration areas in preparation. These areas mainly present the following features:

1.Strong regional representation: the demonstration areas include 46 single-product demonstration areas such as West Lake Longjing tea and Wuchang rice, and 4 comprehensive demonstration areas including Fuping, Shaanxi and Hanyuan, Sichuan, distributed in 29 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government. 2.Various categories under protection: geographical indications in the demonstration areas cover multiple categories such as primary agricultural products, processed foods, genuine medical materials, and handicrafts. 3.High reputation: Korla fragrant pear, Dendrobium huoshanense, Ru porcelain and other prestigious and well-known products of geographical indications are selected for protection demonstration, of which 33 geographical indications are included in the Agreement between the European Union and the Government of the People's Republic of China on Cooperation on, and Protection of, Geographical Indications. 4.High comprehensive benefits: there are 2,444 companies using special marks for geographical indications in the demonstration areas, with a direct annual output value of 130 billion yuan, and the added value of products is high. 5. Focusing on rural revitalization: the demonstration areas cover 18 central and western provinces, 26 national key counties for rural revitalization, key counties covered by the national poverty alleviation program, and contiguous destitute areas, and "Three Regions and Three Prefectures", to consolidate and expand the results of poverty alleviation and effectively connect them with the rural revitalization.

(Source: CHINA Official WeChat Account)

On October 13, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) Commissioner Shen Changyu and the Japan Patent Office (JPO) newly appointed Commissioner Mori Kiyoshi held their first meeting online.

Dr. Shen extended his congratulations to Mr. Mori Kiyoshi's appointment and introduced China's 15-year Plan (2021-2035) on the Development of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). He hoped that the two offices could continue to deepen bilateral intellectual property collaboration.

Mr. Mori Kiyoshi introduced the latest development of Japan's intellectual property-related policies, as well as the measures taken to innovate the working mode for patent examination and improve service facilitation through IT since the outbreak of COVID-19. At the meeting, the two offices had exchanges on the latest intellectual property-related policies and law revision of the two countries and shared views on international intellectual property affairs of common concern.

(Source: CHINA Official WeChat Account)

Summary of the case:

Zhejiang Sanhua Intelligent Controls Co., Ltd. ("Sanhua") was established in 1994. After 27 years of development, Sanhua has formed a development pattern centered on the two major business segments of home appliance refrigeration components and automotive thermal management components. As a leading enterprise in home appliance refrigeration parts, Sanhua has achieved significant economy of scale and long-term stable operation. In the field of electronic expansion valves involved in this overseas lawsuit, currently only 6 companies in the world have achieved mass production, and Sanhua ranks first with about half of the market share.

Sanhua has stable cooperation regarding electronic expansion valve sales with a Korean electronics company. A competitor intended to sell electronic expansion valves of similar structure to this Korean company, and these electronic expansion valves will be installed in air conditioners sold by the Korean electronics company to the Middle East. To win over a commercial order of the Korean electronics company, the competitor filed a petition regarding the patent protection scope determination of the self-produced electronic expansion valve and Sanhua's Korea Patents for Invention No. 1455952 and No. 1478777 in early 2019 to the Korean Intellectual Property Tribunal, claiming that its electronic expansion valve does not fall within the patent right protection scopes of the above-mentioned two Korean inventions of Sanhua. After trial, the Korean Intellectual Property Tribunal determined in the judgment of the first instance that the electronic expansion valve product of the competitor falls within the protection scope of patent No. 1478777, but does not fall within the protection scope of patent No. 1455952. In addition, the competitor also submitted a request for invalidation with the Korean Intellectual Property Tribunal against the Korean Patent for Invention No. 1157746 of Sanhua. After trial by the Korean Intellectual Property Tribunal, the patent was maintained valid entirely.

In response to the two first-instance judgments issued by the Korean Intellectual Property Tribunal, the competitor and Sanhua both appealed to the Patent Court in Korea. In September 2021, the Patent Court in Korea issued two second-instance judgments:

(1) Judgment No. 2020he6866: revoking the judgment (No. 2019dang587) made by the Korean Intellectual Property Tribunal, determining that the invention disclosed in the description and drawings of the competitor falls within the scope of claim 1 of Sanhua's Korea Patent for Invention No. 1455952; the litigation costs shall be borne by the competitor.

(2) Judgment No. 2020he6613: upholding the judgment (No. 2019dang588) made by the Korean Intellectual Property Tribunal, rejecting the appeal of the competitor, and determining that the invention disclosed in the description and drawings of the competitor falls within the scopes of claims 1-4 and 7-9 of Sanhua's Korea Patent for Invention No. 1478777 (equivalent); the litigation costs shall be borne by the competitor.

Typical significance:

Unitalen and SHIN & KIM represented Sanhua in the Korean patent litigation and won an overall victory. This is also one of the few important patent litigation cases where a Chinese company has won an overall victory in the Patent Court in Korea. This case is also of great significance to the global intellectual property protection of Sanhua's electronic expansion valves and other products.

Brief of the case:

Recently, Unitalen represented Beijing Normal University in the second instance and retrial of the case of review on cancellation of the trademark "JINGSHI". The Supreme People's Court ruled to uphold the second instance judgment (that is, to maintain the valid registration of the disputed trademark "JINGSHI" in "Legal services"). Thereby Unitalen client won the final judgment.

The 3-year non-use cancellation case of the trademark "JINGSHI" is quite tortuous: the Trademark Office maintained the registration; the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB) cancelled the registration; the Beijing Intellectual Property Court upheld the TRAB's ruling in the first instance; the Beijing High People's Court revoked the first instance judgment, determined that the evidence of use of the trademark "JINGSHI" was sufficient to prove that it has been commercially applied in "Legal services" truly and effectively, and maintained the registration of the trademark "JINGSHI"; and the third party appealed to the Supreme People's Court for a retrial due to dissatisfaction with the second instance judgment, and the appeal was rejected.

Typical significance:

In this case, on the one hand, the attorney conducted an in-depth investigation on the evolution of the name of "Legal services" from the 7^th edition of the Similar Goods and Services Table published when the disputed trademark was applied for registration to the currently effective 11^th edition of the Table, and consolidated the fact that "Legal research" is a specific term of "Legal services" from the aspects of service purpose, content, manner, and object, etc., to prevent the interests of the trademark registrant from being harmed due to changes in the Table. On the other hand, the attorney demonstrated, from the perspective of the Civil Code, the validity of a license contract with dissolving conditions and the use that does not violate the will of the trademark holder.

On September 10, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court held a briefing on the perjury-related punishment in the administrative cases over the review on cancellation of trademark right, reported relevant information on the trial of administrative cases over the review on cancellation of trademark right, introduced main measures for regulation of the perjury behavior in such cases, and gave relevant suggestions for further strengthening the full-chain protection of intellectual property. Meanwhile, a series of "typical cases of perjury-related punishment in the administrative cases over the review on cancellation of trademark right" were released in the briefing. Unitalen's "Case of administrative dispute over the review on cancellation of trademark right of BLACKDIAMOND" was selected into the typical cases.