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