Beginning from August 28, 2018, the former State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) changes its English name to China National Intellectual Property Administration, officially abbreviated as “CNIPA”.

In addition, CNIPA official website is now www.cnipa.gov.cn.

(Source: CNIPA.gov.cn)

According to a notice issued by Trademark Review & Adjudication Board (TRAB), effective from September 1, 2018,

1)Trademark applicants are no longer required to submit Notifications of Refusal / Partial Refusal when applying for review (excluding refusal review of Madrid International marks).

2)Applicants for refusal review are no longer required to submit identification documents, provided their names remain same as the applicants for trademark registration, (excluding refusal review of Madrid International marks)

CNIPA (formerly known as SIPO) and USPTO had been exchanging electronic priority documents to facilitate swift handling of priority request for patent applications since October 8, 2014. However, due to security policy imposed by the US government, this electronic exchange, operated on a secure network managed and maintained by US, has to be ceased as the supporting network will be disconnected. For applications filed after September 1, 2018 (inclusive), CNIPA and USPTO will no longer obtain the electronic priority documents through bilateral exchange channel. However, CNIPA and USPTO have decided to switch to the DAS platform provided by WIPO to obtain electronic priority documents issued by each other. For applications filed after September 1, 2018 (inclusive), applicants shall submit, store and enquire priority documents with WIPO DAS in accordance with their requirements, which can be found at this link.

On August 31, 2018, the Fifth Session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress of China (NPCC) passed the "E-commerce Law of China", which will come into force on January 1, 2019.

The Law will regulate typical issues related to e-commerce, including contract contents, logistics, operation entities, operation conducts, e-payments, etc.

Unitalen will publish an article analyzing the impact of the E-Commerce Law on intellectual property protection in due course, please stay posted.

According to the latest data provided by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) of China, in the first half of 2018, China’s total trade in IP royalty was US $22 billion, a year-on-year increase of 53.6%. Among them, the IP royalty export valued at US$ 2.737 billion, up 62.1%; the import valued at US $19.268 billion, up 52.5%, showing growth in both sectors with the export leading though.

Industry wise, still, the IP royalty in manufacturing sector ranked first in both the export and import: US $2.138 billion exported, up 53.2%, accounting for 78.1% of the total export; and US $13.559 billion imported, up 27.5%, accounting for 70.4% of the total import.

Category wise, the export of royalty fees for reproducing or distributing computer software ranked first among all categories in export, totaling US $2.153 billion, up 54.8%, accounting for 78.7%. The import of research and development results was the highest among all categories in import, totaling US$8.54 billion, up 31.7%, accounting for 44.3%.

Region wise, Guangdong province ranked first in both import and export of intellectual property royalties with totally US $2.284 billion exported, accounting for 83.4%; and US $5.849 billion imported, accounting for 30.4%.

In the first half of the year, the total trade deficit of China IP royalty was $16.531 billion, an increase of $5.585 billion over the same period in 2017. Germany, Japan, and the United States are the major contributors to this with the respective deficits as US $3.127 billion, $2.932 billion, and $2.46 billion, jointly accounting for 51.5% of the total deficit.

Overall, China's IP trade is still dominated by imports, with exports accounting for less than 15%, and the deficit is still expanding, which reflects that China still needs to improve in technology innovation and the quality of the IP rights.

Unitalen client Nanjing Guangwei Ecoway Technology Co., Ltd. (“Guangwei”) is engaged in solar utilization, power saving and high-efficiency heat exchanging technology, and owns a series of self-innovated patents. Back in 2017, Guangwei sued Zhejiang Yuteng New Energy Co., Ltd. (“Yuteng”) for infringing upon Guangwei’s plate solar collector invention patent. Unitalen assisted Guangwei in defeating patent invalidation petition by Yuteng and winning patent infringement litigation at Shanghai IP Court earlier this year.

On February 12, 2018, Yuteng appealed to Shanghai High Court and filed another petition for invalidation of Guangwei’s patent at dispute. to the Patent Reexamination Board. During oral examination of invalidation, Unitalen defended Guangwei’s patent by arguing the modification of patent at dispute does not exceed the protection scope and the patent at dispute possesses inventiveness. On the same date of court hearing in June 2018, Unitalen learnt from Patent Reexamination Board that the patent at dispute is again maintained. After hearing and several rounds of inquiry, the appeal court decides that:

1.Whether the modification of the patent at issue has exceeded the scope is not a matter for review in patent infringement dispute;

2.The alleged infringing product falls within the scope of protection of patent claims 1 and 7, and the amount of the indemnity for 500,000 yuan is reasonable, thus approved;

3.The requested compensation of 200,000 yuan for reasonable expenses in stopping infringement is also approved.

The court dismissed Yuteng’s appeal and upheld the original judgment.

In this case, Unitalen represented the client in several rounds of patent invalidation procedures, as well as the first and second instance of the patent infringement litigations, making sure of seamless coordination of all procedures to protect the client’s patent right. 　　

At the Trademark Seminar hosted by Intellectual Property Committee of China National Lawyers Association held in Beijing this August, the “拉菲庄园” trademark retrial case represented by Unitalen was selected into the “2018 Top 10 Trademark Cases”.

The selection, aiming at recognizing the contribution of lawyers, especially highlighting the role and value of lawyers in trademark dispute resolutions, was conducted by an expert group composed of former senior intellectual property judges.

The 2018 China International Trademark Festival took place in Tangshan during August 31st to September 3rd. More than 1,500 delegates including officials from national ministries, WIPO and overseas government intellectual property departments, famous intellectual property experts home and abroad, well-known entrepreneurs, as well as trademark agencies attended the event.

In the 2018 Awards Ceremony held at the reception, Unitalen was again selected as the annual “Excellent Trademark Agency” and selected among the first batch of “Gold Tier Trademark Agencies” by virtue of the firm’s solid strengths in comprehensive fields.

In addition, the “Heze Huiyuan Trademark Infringement and Unfair Competition Lawsuit” represented by Unitalen, was selected into “2017-2018 Excellent Trademark Cases”.

On September 1, Unitalen IP Salon, an important part of the festival was co-hosted by China Trademark Association, Unitalen, and Zhongguancun Vision Intellectual Property Innovation Institute. The salon gathered senior judges, Trademark Review & Adjudication Board (TRAB) examiners, and lawyers to conduct in-depth exchanges and discussions on the application of laws in trademark administrative cases. More than 200 representatives from domestic and foreign businesses, intellectual property service agencies and relevant governments organizations attended the seminar.

On September 3, more than 30 representatives from Japan Patent Attorneys Association, China Trademark Association and the Chinese agencies attended the China-Japan Trademark Exchange. Unitalen partner Mr. Wei Wei was invited to preside over the meeting. At the meeting, the participants had extensive discussions over topics of “Latest Practice of Japanese Non-use Cancellation Proceedings”, “Application of “Bona Fide” Principle in Chinese Opposition and Invalidation cases”, “GI Protection under Japanese Trademark Law”, "Procedure and Practice of Customs Protection of Trademark Rights in Japan”, “Customs Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in China" and other related issues.