China IP SME Helpdesk Newsletter

This is a non-exhaustive list of some particular aspects of China patent filing procedure. Although substantial principles of patent law are generally harmonised, there are still significant differences in procedure which IP professionals dealing with China on a regular basis should be aware of.

Software can be protected under copyright law in China. Many foreign companies are unfamiliar with how to record software copyright in China, and how to keep the source code confidential during the recordal. Please refer to the below for the requirements and a few practical suggestions.

This article is to explain the bond system and the procedure of the Customs seizure.

Copyright arises automatically, but it may not be easy to prove ownership of copyright in China. For some manufacturing companies, it might be possible for their products to be protected by copyright under the category of practical art. This gives another tool for enforcing their IP in China. The applicant may consider submitting the following evidence to establish ownership of copyright

Since a lot of businesses in China are conducted over social media, Chinese courts have ruled that social media accounts such as WeChat Official Account can be considered a valuable network virtual property. In this light, the Administrative Regulations on the Administration of Internet User Public Account Information Services were amended in 2021to strengthen the protection of official accounts against counterfeiting by increasing identity checks and authentication requirements. An important thing for EU SMEs to note is that the use of other people’s trade marks in an official account information such as the alias, avatar, and profile of the official account can be considered as trade mark violation and remedies are available for enterprises whose IP is infringed.

In early July, the Supreme People's Court issued the new judicial explanation, which enhances plant variety rights protection. According to the judicial explanation, “those who assist others in violating a breeder's property rights by facilitating the purchase, storage, transport and processing of a new plant variety, will be punished by law”. This is good news for SMEs dealing with new plant varieties as makes the enforcement of new plant variety rights in China stronger.

On 1 June 2021, the amended Patent Law came to force. The new Patent Law brings substantial changes for the pharmaceutical companies doing business with China, as for the first time, a patent linkage system was introduced in China’s IP legislation. While everyone is still looking forward to the implementing measures of the new Patent Law, on 15 June the Supreme Court published its Stipulations on Patent Linkage Related Trials. In this article our external expert Toby Mak provides some comments on these Stipulations to help the pharmaceutical SMEs better understand the content of the Stipulations.

With COVID-19 giving a major push for the development of cross-border e-commerce across the world, China’s Ministry of Commerce is planning to evaluate their cross-border e-commerce pilot zones to create better conditions for cross-border e-commerce. According to the Ministry of Commerce, “in next steps, a new batch of pilot zones will be expanded, and guideline for the protection of cross-border e-commerce intellectual property rights will be studied and formulated to guide cross-border e-commerce platforms in mitigating intellectual property risks and preventing counterfeit and shoddy products…” These steps are thought to strengthen IP protection in cross-border e-commerce.

For those interested in statistics, the CNIPA has recently published the highlights of 2020 IPR statistics. In 2020, the CNIPA handled over 9 million trade mark applications and over 4 million patent applications. The statistics shows that majority of patent applications concerned utility model applications, a type of patent that is easy to obtain and widely used in China, but oftentimes overlooked by the EU SMEs.