China IP SME Helpdesk Newsletter

Trade secret protection has always been challenging to SMEs due to complicated requirements of evidence collection and heavy burden of proof, so it is good to see efforts towards improving trade secret protection. According to the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), “15 to 20 city-level and county-level administrative units across the country will be selected as test areas where innovative trade secret enforcement and protection will be exercised for the duration of 3 years.

The Government Work Report was delivered during the Fifth Session of Thirteenth National People's Congress which opened on 5 March 2022. The Work Report pays special attention to IP protection, according to the Government Work Report, “China will further beef up IPR protection and application, build up digital industries such as integrated circuits and facilitate intangible cultural heritage protection, make the most of the legacy of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics”

To improve trade mark examination, the Trademark Office of China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued interpretations of the Trademark Examination and Trial Guide. According to CNIPA “the Guide adds an elaboration on concepts related to distinctiveness of trademarks to urge trademark examiners to better grasp the connotation and denotation of distinctiveness of trademarks, and to more accurately determine whether a trademark is distinctive and whether it can be registered, so as to ensure that the consistency of the implementation of the standards and the correctness of the examination conclusions to improve the quality of the examination; and also to remind applicants to choose more distinctive signs when applying for registration of trademarks”.

On February 28, China’s the Intellectual Property (IP) Court of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) published 55 guiding principles it had identified in rulings issued in 2021. These guiding principles serve as examples for the other courts, but also provide information for the SMEs on what the courts will take into account when making their decisions. Some of these cases are illustrated in the article.