ChinaChina Patent OfficeCNIPAPatent LawUpdates and Changes
10 November 2023

Announcement: Implementation Regulations (Rules) of the Chinese Patent Law have been Approved

by
Ms. Yolanda Wang
Ms. Jennifer Che

On November 3rd, 2023, the Premier of the State Council, Li Qiang, chaired a regular meeting where the "Implementation Regulations of the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China (Revised Draft)" was reviewed and approved. This is great news, as we have been waiting quite some time for these Regulations (Rules) to be approved (see our previous article summarizing the draft Implementation Rules). Considering the 4th Amendment of the new Chinese Patent Law was passed in October 2020, we have certainly been waiting a long time for more details about how this law will be implemented.

This document is not publicly available yet. However, the announcement provides a summary of key highlights:

Key Highlights:

  • China will continue to enhance protection of IP rights, with a goal of further refining the patent application and examination systems to improve China’s standards in patent innovation, application, protection, management, and related services.
  • China will continue efforts to strengthen alignment with relevant international treaties.
  • The Regulations affirm that the patent law plays a pivotal role in promoting technological innovation and the development of new industries and markets.
  • China will initiate multiple forms of public awareness campaigns on IP Rights to foster a legal environment that supports and safeguards innovation.

These high level statements reflect China’s overarching goals for strengthening both IP protection as well as public awareness of IP protection in China. We look forward to seeing the details of the Regulations.

As always, we keep an eye out for updates such as these and will inform you as soon as more details come out. 

Other Articles

SPC Upholds $2M RMB Award in China’s First Patent Case on a Biological Deposit

4 July 2022
On 28 Feb 2022, China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) issued its annual “Judgment Digests”, which includes a list of “48 typical cases” highlighting representative SPC decisions in 2021. The Judgment Digests help us understand more about the SPC’s judicial ideology, trial concepts, and adjudication methods in dealing with difficult and sophisticated legal issues as well […]

What is the difference between an Invention Patent and a Utility Model Patent?

13 August 2021
There are two types of patent protection in China. Invention patents (similar to a US utility patent) have a term of 20 years from the date of filing and may be granted for both methods and products. Utility model patents (similar to a petty patent) may be granted in China for technical solutions that relate […]

China Proposes New Examination Guidelines for Utility Models

24 November 2022
The Utility Model (UM) in China has always been a popular choice for patent filing due to its relatively low cost and speed of prosecution. The UM prosecution only includes a preliminary examination, which is essentially a mini (stripped down) version of an invention application’s substantive examination.1 With the simplified examination process, UMs are typically […]

CHINA: New Patent Examination Guidelines Now Available for Public Comment

4 August 2021
Two months after the new Chinese Patent law came into effect, the CNIPA has released a new set of Patent Examination Guidelines (proposed version) for public comments on Aug 3, 2021. Here are the explanation of the amendments (Chinese only). Here is the full set of proposed amendments (Chinese only). Briefly, the new amendment focuses […]

Our Past Events

Top crossarrow-right