LONGAN LAW FIRM
Contents
Long An News
Long An and Several Lawyers AreHonored with Five Awards by the 2023 China Intellectual Property Forum
Cindy Xianzhi Quan IsInvited to Attend and Deliver Keynote Speeches at the Seminar on Assisting Chinese Enterprises in Dealing with Overseas Intellectual Property Disputes
China IP News
CNIPAissues Annual Report on Intellectual Property Operation in China (2022)
CNIPA issues Decision of the State Council on Amending the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Patent Law of the People’s Republic of China& Chinese Patent Examination Guidelines (2023)
China SPC Issuesthe Notice on Establishing a National Database of Judgment Documents
Beijing High People’s Court Releases White Paper on Beijing Courts’ Specialized Trial of Intellectual Property Cases for Three Decades (1993-2023)
Summary of the Judgments of Intellectual Property Court of the SPC 2022
Selection of Patent Civil Cases
Long An News
Long An and Several Lawyers Are Honored with Five Awards by the 2023 China Intellectual Property Forum
Recently, the China Intellectual Property Forum announced the 2023 Intellectual Property Rankings which is based on the service capabilities and industry-wide influence of the law firms/agencies and lawyers/professionals representing the IP litigants/clients. Long An Law Firm was honored with the first position in the comprehensive ranking of “Top 30 China Domestic Intellectual Property Law Firms”.
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/v7ZKUI9PBlyhkV1Sfvktfg
Cindy Xianzhi Quan Is Invited to Attend and Deliver Keynote Speech at the Seminar on Assisting Chinese Enterprises in Dealing with Overseas Intellectual Property Disputes
On November 30, the Seminar on Coping with Overseas Intellectual Property Disputes to Help Chinese Enterprises Succeed in the New Era of “Going Global” was held in Beijing. Cindy Quan, Senior Partner at Long An Law Firm, was invited to attend the conference and deliver a keynote speech.
During the conference, Cindy Quan, under the theme of “Strategies for Coping with Overseas Intellectual Property Disputes”, thoroughly analyzed the overall situation of overseas intellectual property disputes and key points in newly filed cases. She provided professional and powerful solutions for resolving disputes related to patents, trademarks, and trade secrets abroad. By combining typical cases, she elucidated the crucial points and specific legal procedures for dispute resolution, earning high praise from the attendees.
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LlF17D6QJt4cSgEL4wBU0g
China IP News
CNIPA Issues the Annual Report on Intellectual Property Operation in China (2022)
Recently, the Annual Report on Intellectual Property Operation in China (2022) (hereinafter referred to as the “Report”) was officially released. The report provides a comprehensive and relatively objective depiction of China’s intellectual property operation in 2022 from the perspectives of data and cases, focusing on three aspects, i.e. transfer and transformation, financing services, and system construction.
The Report indicates that in 2022, the level of practical application of patents in China steadily increased. The total number of patent operations, including transfer, licensing, and pledges, reached 507,000 times. Among them, the patent operations in 37 key cities for intellectual property operation services accounted for 44.8% of the total operations nationwide. In 16 provinces participating in the special plan for patent transformation subsidies, the patent operations accounted for 84.0% of the total operations nationwide. Regarding intellectual property financial empowerment for market entities, in 2022, the total amount of financing through patent and trademark pledges nationwide reached CNY 486.88 billion, maintaining a growth rate of over 40% for three consecutive years. This benefited 26,000 enterprises, with 70.5% being small and medium-sized enterprises. By the end of 2022, intellectual property insurance had provided risk protection for over 46,000 patents, trademarks, geographical indications, and integrated circuit layout designs of more than 28,000 enterprises, with a cumulative coverage of over CNY 110 billion. Nationwide, 91 intellectual property securitization products were issued on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, raising a total of CNY 21 billion by the end of 2022.
https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/art/2023/11/29/art_53_188775.html
The State Council Revises the Implementing Rules of the Patent Law of the People’s Republic of China
The State Council recently issued the Decision on Amending the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Patent Law of the People’s Republic of China (the “Decision“), effective as of January 20, 2024.
The Decision mainly proposes the following revisions: (1) improving patent application system to facilitate applicants in obtaining patent; (2) improving patent examination system to raise patent examination quality; (3) strengthening patent protection to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the patentees; (4) strengthening patent services to promote patent creation and transformation; and (5) adding special regulations on the international applications of designs to align with the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs (1999). According to the Decision, the new implementing rules clarify that electronic form will be deemed as written form, and perfect relevant rules on the electronic submission and service of various documents; detail the rules on priority, clarify that the request for restoration of priority shall be made within a time limit, add or correct the conditions for priority, and specify the conditions and procedures for supplementing patent claim, patent specification, or some contents thereof by citing prior application documents; clarify the requirements for the application documents on partial design patent; and relax the circumstances for non-loss of novelty.
https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/202312/content_6921633.htm
China SPC Issues the Notice on Establishing a National Database of Judgment Documents
On November 23, 2023, the Supreme People’s Court of China issued the Notice on Establishing a National Database of Judgment Documents (Chinese: 关于建立全国法院裁判文书数据库的通知). According to this notice, starting from January 2024, the national database of Judgment Documents will officially replace the current Judgment Document Network and be put into operation. The access to search the database is not limited to court staff but is extended to lawyers, legal researchers, and the general public.
Beijing High People’s Court Releases the White Paper on Beijing Courts’ Specialized Trial of Intellectual Property Cases for Three Decades (1993-2023)
On November 29, the Beijing High People’s Court held a press conference to release the White Paper on Beijing Courts’ Specialized Trial of Intellectual Property Cases for Three Decades (1993-2023) along with 30 typical cases.
From 1993 to September 2023, various courts in Beijing have handled a total of 624,577 intellectual property cases, concluding 598,228 cases. Among them, the combined number of first-instance and second-instance cases handled is 621,762 (with an average annual growth rate of 21.8%), and the number of concluded cases is 595,520 (with an average annual growth rate of 22.2%).
During the press conference, 30 typical cases were disclosed, representing a variety of civil, administrative, and criminal cases covering various aspects of intellectual property protection, such as patent, trademark, copyright, unfair competition, monopoly, and new plant varieties.
Full details on the White Paper on Beijing Courts’ Specialized Trial of Intellectual Property Cases for Three Decades (English Version) are given in the Appendix.
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/5vhqK2x8fLJSBR8rF_gcfA
Summary of Judgments of Intellectual Property Court of the SPC 2022
Selection of Patent Civil Cases
In order to present the judicial philosophy, trial approach, and judgment methods of the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People’s Court in technology-related intellectual property and antitrust cases, the Court has selected 61 typical cases from the 3,468 cases concluded in 2022, and extracted 75 key points of the judgments to form the Summary of Judgments of Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People’s Court (2022).
In the following, we present some of the classic cases from this Summary.
The legality of the basic facts of the prior art defense
Case No. (2020) SPC Zhi Min Zhong 1568
[Judgment Summary]
No one shall benefit from illegal acts. If the accused infringer or a third party authorized by it discloses the patented technical solution in violation of express or implied confidentiality obligations, and the accused infringer claims a prior art defense based on the factual state of the illegal disclosure, the people’s court shall not support it.
Subjective elements of legal source defense
Case No. (2022) SPC Zhi Min Zhong 593
[Judgment Summary]
Whether to operate in compliance with laws and regulations and engage in prudent and rational transactions may be taken as an important consideration in the examination of the subjective elements of the defense of legal sources. Where a user claiming the defense of lawful sources purchases a product manufactured with the technology involved from the right holder and is obligated to keep the relevant technology confidential according to the contract, and then purchases the same product from others at a price which is obviously lower than the price of the product patented by the right holder after the patent is granted, the user shall be obligated to pay more attention to the defects of the right of the product. Where a user cannot prove that he has performed the aforesaid duty of care, his defense on his lawful source may not be supported.
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/9_Fr0GumAXUjEumVed_5yA
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