agreementsChinaDesignExamination GuidePatent Law
4 January 2023

FOLLOW UP: Amendments to the China Patent Examination Guidelines in 2022 – Part 1: New rules for designs in view of China signing onto the Hague Agreement

Since the publication of our earlier article about China signing onto the Hague Agreement, some of our Hong Kong clients have expressed interest in taking advantage of the Hague international design application system, i.e., filing a Hague international design application with the CNIPA (Chinese National Intellectual Property Administration) as a receiving office (RO).

Up until this moment, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the CNIPA[1] have been silent on whether a Hong Kong design applicant without a habitual residence or business office in mainland China would be eligible to file a Hague international design application with the CNIPA as a RO.

We recently brought this matter forward to the CNIPA. The CNIPA confirmed that Hong Kong applicants without a habitual residence or business office in mainland China are not eligible to file such type of application with the CNIPA.

A Hague application currently does not cover Hong Kong nor Macao

Although China is included in the current list of the contracting parties of the Hague Agreement, Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR – both separate jurisdictions having distinct Basic Laws from the People Republic of China – are not included.

This means that Hong Kong and Macao design applicants must file independent design applications in these two regions.

Despite the current situation, things may change in the future. China’s “instrument of accession” (legal document indicating China’s agreement to join the Hague Agreement) provides room for change, stating that the current situation stands “until otherwise notified by the Government of the People’s Republic of China”[2]. This means that China has already included provisions allowing it to provide notification of changes regarding Hong Kong and Macao in the future.

Stay tuned for more upcoming articles about the other changes in the proposed Patent Examination Guidelines.

This article is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice or a legal opinion on a specific set of facts.

  1. https://www.wipo.int/hague/en/

    https://www.wipo.int/hague/memberprofiles/selectmember#/

    https://www.wipo.int/hague/en/news/2022/news_0005.html

    https://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/notifications/hague/treaty_hague_146.html

    https://wipolex.wipo.int/en/treaties/ShowResults?search_what=C&treaty_id=9

    https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/col/col2893/index.html

    https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/art/2022/10/31/art_75_180016.html

    https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/module/download/downfile.jsp?classid=0&showname=附件1:《专利审查指南修改草案(再次征求意见稿)》修改对照表.pdf&filename=dab071af523943b49eaf1114a84b6234.pdf

  2. https://www.wipo.int/hague/en/news/2022/news_0005.html

About the Authors

Polly Wong is a Patent Trainee at Eagle IP, a Boutique Patent Firm with offices in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Macau.

Pauli Wong is a Principal and Chinese Patent Attorney at Eagle IP, a Boutique Patent Firm with offices in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Macau.

Jennifer Che, J.D. is Vice President, Principal, and a US Patent Attorney at Eagle IP, a Boutique Patent Firm with offices in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Macau.

Other Articles

How Far Can an Employer Reach to Own Employee-made “Service Inventions”?

30 July 2020
2019 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 […]

IP Strategies for the Newly Released Implementation Regulations of the 4th Amendment of the Chinese Patent Law: Part 3: The 15-Day Mailing Period is Mostly Going Away

28 February 2024
A Closer Look at the New Presumed Receipt Date Calculation Background China has finally released the long-awaited Patent Law Implementation Regulations (“Regulations”) and associated "Patent Examination Guidelines" (“Guidelines”, similar to the United States' MPEP) which provide further clarity and details of the new Chinese patent law. Today’s article will focus on changes that impact how […]

How Smart is a "Skilled Person in the Art"?

11 April 2022
Let’s start with a riddle: can you name a person who has read every book, every journal, conducted every known experiment, and is knowledgeable about every single patent prosecution / litigation in the world? The answer? A “skilled person in the art.” This person is also known as a “person having ordinary skill in the […]

CNIPA Releases Interim Measures for the Amended Chinese Patent Law Going Into Effect June 1, 2021

28 May 2021
Breaking News! We finally have more details about the new Chinese Patent Law which will go into effect on June 1, 2021. The full set of measure can be found at this link. Below are some pertinent points. No Implementation Rules . . . . Yet The new Implementation Rules will not be available by […]

Our Past Events

Top crossarrow-right