Patent Re-examination and Invalidation Department

What Microsoft’s Recent Patent Invalidation Case in China Teaches Us About User Interface Patents

2026年1月29日

Each year the CNIPA publishes its Top Ten Patent Re-examination and Invalidation Cases for the previous year. These cases are meant to be guiding cases, showcasing exemplary real-world decisions that clarify certain aspects of the law. Today we’ll be sharing about one of the Top 10 Invalidation Cases in 2024 involving Microsoft (China) Co., Ltd. […]

The Secret Prior Art Trap: A Case Study on Conflicting Applications in China

2025年11月13日

In patent prosecution, the concept of a "conflicting application" or “secret prior art” plays a critical role in determining the patentability of an invention. This article explores the framework for assessing conflicting applications under Chinese patent law, with a comparative perspective on the approaches adopted in the United States. Case Background: The Image Encoding Dispute […]

From Faces to Football Fields: How Applying AI Models to Different Application Fields Can Prove Inventive in China

2025年10月21日

As AI models become versatile and adaptable across multiple contexts and industries, questions about inventive step sit at the heart of patent examination in China. The 2023 Patent Examination Guidelines (hereinafter referred to as 'the Guidelines') included several sessions dedicated to explaining how inventive step should be examined for AI-related inventions, featuring examples related to […]

Obviousness: can features from different categories of products be combined to invalidate a design patent?

2025年9月18日

Introduction “I have a tank, I have a gun—boom! Tank gun?” Each year the CNIPA releases a list of Top Ten Patent Re-examination and Invalidation Cases. These cases are meant to be guiding cases, showcasing exemplary real-world decisions that clarify certain aspects of the law. Over the next several months we will be highlighting many […]

Can I transfer priority rights in China without the consent of other applicants? Insights from the Broad Institute’s CRISPR patent

2025年2月4日

The high-profile disputes surrounding an important CRISPR patent belonging to The Broad Institute, MIT and Harvard (hereinafter “the proprietors”) has attracted a lot of attention in recent years, particularly regarding the validity of priority rights that were challenged worldwide. In Europe, the patent was famously revoked by the European Patent Office (hereinafter “EPO”) due to […]