The Greater China IP Updates ˇV June 2023

By Lyndon 

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The Intellectual Property Court of China Releases Report for 2022

Chinaˇ¦s Supreme Peopleˇ¦s Court recently released the Annual Report of the Intellectual Property Court (IPC) for 2022.  One noteworthy detail was the 18% increase in accepted cases bringing a total of 6,183 technology-related IP appeal cases and monopoly appeal cases.  In addition, the overall rate of remand and reversion was 13.5%.  The average number of cases accepted per judge was 142.5, an increase of 16 cases from 2021.  The average case closure was 79.9 cases per judge, which was 3.6 cases fewer year on year.  The average adjudication period was 165.2 calendar days.  The IPC accepted 2,956 new second instance substantive civil disputes, of which 615 involved infringement of invention patents, 968 involved infringement of utility patents, 312 involved patent application rights and patent ownership, 144 involved new plant variety, 78 involved technological secrets, 648 involved computer software, 96 involved technology-related IP contracts, 15 involved monopoly disputes and 74 involved other disputes.  The IPC accepted 887 new second instance administrative cases, of which 241 involved re-examination of invention patent applications, 234 involved invalidation of invention patents, 207 involved invalidation of utility model patents, 84 involved invalidation of design patents, 24 involved monopoly disputes and 65 involved administrative enforcement. 
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China Plans to Grade Patent Agencies from May 1, 2023

Chinaˇ¦s National Intellectual Property Administration issued the Administrative Measures for Credit Evaluation of Patent Agencies on April 11, and they became effective on May 1, 2023. CNIPA has categorized the rating system, A, B, C, and D in descending order.  Starting with 100 points, agencies get points deducted for such negative aspects as, irregular practice, abnormal operation, any history of administrative punishments and so on.  The severest point deductions will be for filing abnormal patent applications domestically or abroad..

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