New Anti-unfair Competition Law (Revised Draft): Strengthening Responsibilities of Platforms and Large Enterprises and Improving Punishment Rules for Commercial Bribery

Date: 25-12-2024

The current Anti-unfair Competition Law was promulgated and implemented in 1993 and amended in 2017 and in 2019. This Revised Draft expands the 2019 version of the Anti-unfair Competition Law. The key revisions are as follows:

• Emphasis on platform operators’ responsibilities. Platform operators should explicitly state the rules for fair competition within the platform and promptly take necessary measures to prevent unfair competition among operators on the platform; stipulate that platform operators should not force operators on platform to sell goods at prices below cost in accordance with the platform operators’ pricing rule.
• Commercial confusion. Operators should not use other’s new media account names, application names, and icons without authorization, set product names or enterprise names (including abbreviation, trade names, etc) that have a certain influence as their search keywords. They are prohibited from providing convenience for others to carry out confusing behavior.
• Commercial bribes: On the basis of the current prohibition of bribery, a provision is added that prohibits organizations and individuals from accepting bribes; both the recipient and the giver of a bribe shall be subject to investigation and punishment.
• Supervision of unfair competition on the internet: Operators shall not use data and algorithms, technology, platform rules, etc., to engage in behavior such as illegally acquiring others’ data, malicious transactions, etc.
• Improvement of regulatory standards for false advertising, unfair prize sales, commercial defamation and other unfair competition practices.
• Increase in the severity of punishment. The upper limit of fines is raised to five million RMB (approx. US$ 700,0000) for violations of trade secrets, commercial defamation, abuse of relative dominance, malicious transactions, and network unfair competition behaviours, etc.

Source: The National People’s Congress of The People’s Republic of China

News link: http://www.npc.gov.cn/flcaw/userIndex.html?lid=ff808181927f0e7b0193fcb2fb3a74e1

新《反不正当竞争法（修订草案）》：强化平台与大型企业责任，完善商业贿赂处罚规则

日期：2024-12-25

现行《反不正当竞争法》于1993年公布施行，并于2017年、2019年进行过两次修改。本次修订草案对2019年版《反不正当竞争法》进行了扩充，主要修订内容如下:

• 强调平台经营者责任：平台经营者应明确平台内公平竞争规则，及时采取必要措施制止平台内经营者不正当竞争行为；明确平台经营者不得强制平台内经营者按其定价规则以低于成本的价格销售商品。

• 商业混淆：将新媒体账号名称、应用程序名称或图标纳入保护范围，将不当设置搜索关键词明确为混淆行为，同时禁止经营者为他人实施混淆行为提供便利。
• 商业贿赂：在现行禁止实施贿赂规定的基础上增设单位和个人不得收受贿赂的规定，行、受贿一起查处。
• 网络不正当竞争监管：经营者不得利用数据和算法、技术、平台规则等，实施不正当获取他人数据、恶意交易等行为。
• 完善虚假宣传、不正当有奖销售、商业诋毁等其他不正当竞争行为规范。
• 提高处罚力度，对于侵犯商业秘密、商业诋毁、滥用相对优势地位、恶意交易、网络不正当竞争行为等，其罚款上限提高到五百万人民币。

资料来源：中国人大网  2024-12-25

新闻链接：http://www.npc.gov.cn/flcaw/userIndex.html?lid=ff808181927f0e7b0193fcb2fb3a74e1

CNIPA Releases Guidelines for Patent Applications Related to Artificial Intelligence (Draft for Comments)

Date: 06-12-2024

In response to the hot legal issues of general concern to innovative entities and to enhance the quality of patent applications, the CNIPA has released Guidelines for Patent Application Related to Artificial Intelligence (Draft for Comments) (‘Application Guidelines’). The Application Guidelines clarify the hot legal issues concerning patent applications related to artificial intelligence:

• Eligibility of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to be an ‘inventor’. The Application Guidelines point out that AI currently does not have the qualifications to be an inventor: an inventor must be a natural person.
• Requirement for full disclosure in the specification. The Application Guidelines point out that artificial intelligence algorithms or models have ‘black box’ characteristics, sufficient information is needed to satisfy the full disclosure requirement. Clear, objective, and complete descriptions should be included in the specification for each different inventive point.
• Consideration of inventiveness. The Application Guidelines point out that algorithm features which functionally support and interact with technical features should be considered as a whole with the technical features. If, after an overall comparison, the solution has prominent substantive features and constitutes a significant advancement, then the Claims possess inventiveness.
• Ethical issues in AI-related patent applications. The Application Guidelines clearly state that patent applications involving AI content should comply with Article 5 of China's Patent Law. Applicants must pay attention to whether the data sources, application scenarios, safety management, and usage norms of AI algorithms or models comply with relevant laws and regulations and ensure they do not violate social ethics or harm the public interest.

Source: China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) 12-06

News link: https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/art/2024/12/6/art_75_196483.html

国家知识产权局发布《人工智能相关发明专利申请指引（征求意见稿）》

日期：2024-12-06

为回应创新主体普遍关切的热点法律问题，提升专利申请质量，国家知识产权局发布《人工智能相关发明专利申请指引（征求意见稿）》（以下简称《申请指引》）。《申请指引》，明确了人工智能相关专利申请的热点法律问题：

• 对于人工智能发明人主体适格问题，《申请指引》指出人工智能目前不具备发明人主体资格，发明人署名需为自然人。
• 对于说明书的充分公开要求，《申请指引》指出人工智能算法或模型存在“黑匣子”特性，需要有足够的信息来达到充分公开的目的，针对不同的发明点在说明书中作出清楚、客观、完整地描述。
• 对于创造性的考量，《申请指引》指出应将与技术特征功能上彼此相互支持、存在相互作用关系的算法特征与所述技术特征作为一个整体考虑，若整体比对后方案具有突出的实质性特点和显著的进步，则权利要求具备创造性。
• 对于人工智能相关专利申请中的伦理问题，《申请指引》明确就人工智能相关内容进行专利申请，应符合我国专利法第五条的规定，需要关注人工智能算法或模型的数据来源、应用场景、安全管理、使用规范等各环节是否符合相关法律法规，不得违反社会公德或妨害公共利益。

资料来源：国家知识产权局  2024-12-06

新闻链接：https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/art/2024/12/6/art_75_196483.html

Shanghai Third Intermediate People's Court (Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, Shanghai Railway Transport Intermediate Court) Releases Ten-year Judicial Data

Date: 26-11-2024

The Shanghai Intellectual Property Court was established on 28 December 2014 and is one of the first three specialized IP courts in China. From 2015 to the first half of 2024, Shanghai Third Intermediate People's Court (Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, Shanghai Railway Transport Intermediate Court) accepted a total of 37,272 intellectual property cases and concluded 34,377 cases. Among the accepted cases, there were 23,548 first instance civil cases, 7,038 second instance civil cases, 23 first instance administrative cases, 15 second instance administrative cases, 188 pre-litigation preservation cases, 5,906 other cases including jurisdiction cases and retrial cases. Five hundred and fifty-four criminal cases were accepted, and five hundred and fifty-two were concluded. Among the accepted criminal cases, there were 113 first instance cases, 358 second instance cases and 83 other procedural cases.

The main characteristics of the intellectual property cases heard are as follows:

First, new technological fields. There has been a trend towards cases involving new industries and technologies, including next-generation information technology, integrated circuits, gene testing, high-end equipment manufacturing, new materials, new energy, and digital creativity.

Second, broad geographic coverage. Among the concluded intellectual property civil cases, foreign-related cases involved 31 countries. The top five countries by case number were the United States (471 cases), Japan (139 cases), Germany (135 cases), South Korea (95 cases), and France (74 cases).

Third, significant social impact. Cases involved well-known global enterprises or industry leaders such as 3M Innovative Properties Company and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Among the accepted civil cases, there were 56 cases with claim amounts of over RMB 50 million (approx. US$ 7,000,000), and 329 cases with claim amounts between RMB 10 million and RMB 50 million (approx. US$ 1,300,000 and 7,000,000). In the accepted criminal cases, there were 23 cases with crime amounts exceeding RMB 10 million (approx. US$ 1,300,000), the highest crime amount reached over RMB 1.1 billion (approx. US$ 140,000,000).

Fourth, high mediation and withdrawal rate. Among the concluded intellectual property cases, 7,780 cases were concluded by judgement, accounting for 23%; 17,940 cases were concluded by withdrawal or mediation, accounting for 53%. For first-instance civil cases, 4,582 were concluded by judgment, accounting for 21%; 17,094 were concluded by withdrawal or mediation, accounting for 77%.

Fifth, strict sentencing and penalties. Over the past decade, nearly 70% of the defendants were sentenced to actual imprisonment. In concluded intellectual property criminal cases, the application of fines was significant, with 82 individuals being fined between RMB 1 million and RMB 10 million, (approx. US$ 140,000 and 1,400,000) and 11 individuals being fined over RMB 10 million, with the highest fine reaching RMB 90 million (approx. US$ 12,500,000). The highest fine imposed on a related defendant organization reached RMB 600 million (approx. US$ 83,000,000).

Source: Shanghai Intellectual Property Court 2024-11-26

News link: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/etcp97uuxwdXe0Ot4N8yeg

上海市第三中级人民法院（上海知识产权法院、上海铁路运输中级法院）发布建院十年审判数据

日期：2024-11-26

上海知识产权法院于2014年12月28日挂牌成立，是全国首批三家知识产权专门法院之一。2015年至2024年上半年，上海市第三中级人民法院（上海知识产权法院、上海铁路运输中级法院）共受理各类知识产权案件37272件，审结34377件。在受理的案件中，民事一审案件23548件，民事二审案件7038件，行政一审案件23件，行政二审案件15件，诉前保全案件188件，管辖案件、再审案件等其他案件5906件。刑事案件554件，结案552件。在受理的刑事案件中，一审案件113件，二审案件358件，其他程序性案件83件。

审理的知识产权案件主要呈现以下特点：

一是技术领域新。近年来受理的知识产权纠纷案件呈现出向新产业、新技术发展的趋势，涵盖新一代信息技术、集成电路、基因测试、高端装备制造、新材料、新能源、数字创意等前沿领域。

二是覆盖地域广。审结的知识产权民事案件中，涉外案件涉及31个国家，当事人所涉国别前五名为美国471件、日本139件、德国135件、韩国95件、法国74件。

三是社会影响大。案件涉及3M创新有限公司、华为技术有限公司等世界知名企业或者行业领先者。受理的民事案件中起诉标的额为5000万元以上的56件，1000万元以上5000万元以下的329件。受理的刑事案件中犯罪金额超过1000万元的有23件，最高达11亿余元。

四是调撤比例高。审结的知识产权民事案件中，判决结案7780件，占比23%；撤诉或者调解结案17940件，占比53%。其中，民事一审案件判决结案4582件，占比21%；撤诉或者调解结案17094件，占比77%。

五是定罪处罚严。十年来，近七成被告人被判处实刑。审结的知识产权刑事案件罚金刑适用力度大，有82人被判处罚金100万元以上1000万元以下，有11人被判处罚金1000万元以上，最高达9000万元；对相关被告单位判处罚金最高达6亿元。

新闻链接：https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/etcp97uuxwdXe0Ot4N8yeg

Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court Releases Ten-year Judicial Data

Date: 10-12-2024

The Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court was established on 16 December 2014 and is another of the first three specialized IP courts in China. Over the past decade, it has concluded a total of 105,000 intellectual property cases, including 52,952 patent cases, including 3,263 invention patent disputes; 40,210 cases involving various copyright disputes; 5,319 cases involving trademark disputes; and 1,042 unfair competition cases.

The Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court has explored the establishment of a diversified mechanism for ascertaining technical facts, namely the "technical surveyor + technical consultant + technical expert" model. It has also set up the first technical survey laboratory and the Greater Bay Area technical survey talent pool, continuously improving the accuracy of technical data relied on. The rate of remand and revision for first-instance cases appealed to the Supreme People's Court has decreased for four consecutive years.

Source: Yangchengpai 2024-12-10

News link: https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1818055898632359402&wfr=spider&for=pc

广州知识产权法院发布建院十年审判数据

日期：2024-12-10

广州知识产权法院于2014年12月16日挂牌成立，是全国首批三家知识产权专门法院之一。建院十年来，广州知识产权法院累计审结各类知识产权案件10.5万件，其中共办结各类专利权纠纷案件52952件，办结发明专利纠纷案件3263件；共办结各类著作权纠纷案件40210件；共办结各类商标权纠纷案件5319件；共办结不正当竞争纠纷案件1042件。

广州知识产权法院还探索建立“技术调查官+技术顾问+技术专家”多元化技术事实查明机制，搭建全国首个技术调查实验室、大湾区技术调查人才库等工作载体，不断提高涉案技术事实认定的精准性，广州知识产权法院一审上诉至最高人民法院案件发改率连续四年下降。

资料来源：羊城派  2024-12-10

新闻链接：https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1818055898632359402&wfr=spider&for=pc

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