China
Breaking News: China passes Fourth Amendment to the Chinese Patent Law
19 October 2020After 12 years, the Fourth Amendment to the Chinese Patent Law has passed and will be in effect on 1 Jun 2021. After years of multiple draft amendments that moved in various directions, we FINALLY have some clarity on what patent protection is going to look like in China in the coming future. Many of […]
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China Forges Ahead with Draft Measures for New Patent Linkage System
19 October 2020Update! The finalized Implementation Measures are now out. You can read the details here: Breaking: China Released New Implementation Measures for the New Patent Linkage System Last month September 11, 2020, China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) and the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) jointly issued a draft set of measures for public opinion […]
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How Far Can an Employer Reach to Own Employee-made “Service Inventions”?
30 July 20202019 China’s Top 50 Representative IP Cases Shenzhen Weibang Technology Co. Ltd v. Li Jianyi & Shenzhen Yuancheng Intelligence Equipment Co. Ltd (2019最高法民申6342号) Each year in China there are hundreds of disputes over patent ownership. A significant part of them are related to “Service Inventions”, which are defined in Article 6 of the Chinese Patent […]
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China Top 50 Case of 2019: How a Functional Feature is Construed Greatly Impacts Protection Scope - Shimano KK v. SENSAH
20 July 2020Every year in the spring The Supreme People’s Court of PRC announces its “Top 10 Intellectual Property (IP) cases” and “50 typical IP cases in Chinese courts” of the year. Although not having precedential weight, these cases serve as a reference and guide people's courts at all levels regarding their intellectual property trials. It’s always […]
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Polymorph Patents in China: What is the Standard for Inventiveness for New Crystal Forms?
14 July 2020This case is focused on polymorphs, namely what are the standards for novelty and inventiveness when it comes to new crystal forms of a known drug? A recent Supreme People’s Court decision in China is illustrative of the way Chinese courts are thinking about polymorph patents in China. Grünenthal is a German pharmaceutical company and […]
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Breaking News: Newest Draft Amendment to the Chinese Patent Law Available for Public Comment
10 July 2020Finally, after more than a year since the last draft amendment came out in 2019, a new draft has been submitted to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee for deliberation on June 28, 2020. The newest version is now published for public comments until August 16, 2020. As a whole, these proposed changes address a […]
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Stealing Trade Secrets: How the Chinese Court Criminally Sentences Employees that Steal Trade Secrets - 2019 China’s Top 50 Representative IP Cases
11 June 2020The theft of trade secrets has always been a deep concern of foreign companies thinking of doing business in China, whether it be sharing protocols with a manufacturing partner, providing technology details to a potential investor, or sharing results from an R&D collaboration. How can businesses ensure that employees do not steal secrets and share […]
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2019 CHINA TOP 10 IP CASE: VALEO V. LUCAS, FUKE, & CHEN
8 June 2020Every year in the spring The Supreme People’s Court of PRC announces its “Top 10 Intellectual Property (IP) cases” and “50 typical IP cases in Chinese courts” of the year. Although not having precedential weight, these cases serve as a reference and guide people's courts at all levels regarding their intellectual property trials. It’s always […]
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The Latest on Post-Filing Data in China’s Patent Law
29 April 2020Post-filing data can sometimes be the crucial difference between a patent allowance and a final rejection. The reasons are endless why important data may not have been included in the original patent application as filed. Time and budget may have been insufficient to generate data over the full scope of the claims at the time […]
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China Provides Specific Directions to Strengthen Patent / Technology Protection from 2020 to 2021
23 April 2020China continues to progress towards its major goal of significantly strengthening IP protection within its borders. Last year it announced several proposed amendments to its patent laws. In January 2020 China and the US signed the Economic and Trade Agreement between the Government of China and US (published 16 January 2020 –“Trade Agreement”), which detailed […]
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