On November 3, Li Qiang, the Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, chaired an executive meeting of the State Council at which the Implementing Regulations of the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China (Amended Draft) was approved after deliberations.

The meeting stressed the need to thoroughly implement the decision and deployment of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on strengthening the intellectual property protection, strictly enforce the Implementing Regulations of the Patent Law, further improve the patent application and examination system to level-up China's patent creation, application, protection, management and service, and to better match the relevant international treaties, and strive to give full play to the important role of the Patent Law in the promotion of scientific and technological innovation and the development of new industries and new sectors.

(Source: CNIPA Official WeChat Account)

Recently, the List of Multilateral Cooperation Deliverables and the List of Practical Cooperation Deliverables of the Third "Belt and Road" Forum for International Cooperation were officially published with the inclusion of three IP cooperation deliverables.

The three listed IP cooperation deliverables are the Joint Statement of the First Meeting of China-Central Asia Heads of Intellectual Property Office, the Third "Belt and Road" High-Level Conference on Intellectual Property to be hosted by the CNIPA in 2024 and the Renewal of the Agreement on Enhancing "Belt and Road" Intellectual Property Cooperation and the agreement on its extension and supplement between the Chinese government and the World Intellectual Property Organization.

(Source: website of the CNIPA)

In recent years, there have been rapid AI technological advances which have resulted in significant increases in related patent applications. The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO) have jointly conducted a comparative study on patent examination cases in the field of AI and formed a study report, with the aim of providing applicants insights into AI-related patent examination criteria and practices.

The report comprises two parts, examination rules and case studies. The part of examination rules elaborately introduces the two offices' examination criteria on subject matter for which patent right shall be granted, novelty, inventive step, sufficient disclosure of the description, and support for claims by the description. The part of case studies selects a total of 16 typical cases, comparing and analyzing the two offices' examination processes and outcomes.

Attached: Report of Comparative Study on AI-Related Inventions

(Source: website of the CNIPA)

Recently, the Annual Report on China's Intellectual Property Operations (2022) (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") was officially released. The Report comprehensively and objectively describes the operation of China's intellectual property in 2022 from two dimensions: data and cases, and from three aspects: transfer and transformation, financing services, and system construction.

Attached: Annual Report on China's Intellectual Property Operations (2022)

(Source: website of the CNIPA)

Case Brief

Beijing Wtown Travel Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Beijing Wtown) was incorporated on July 16, 2010 in Miyun District, Beijing. It was established exclusively for the operation of the Beijing Wtown scenic area, which witnessed millions of visits annually from 2014 to 2016, with a total income of hundreds of millions yuan. Beijing Xiaohao Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Xiaohao) was incorporated on February 12, 2014 in Miyun District, Beijing, and its scope of business at that time included trademark assignment and agency services, etc., the services being subsequently removed with change registration. Xiaohao applied for the registration of the trademarks No. 14073131 and No. 14073132 for "古北水镇" (hereinafter referred to as the involved trademarks) on the alcoholic goods in Class 33 and clothing in Class 25, and then issued a warning letter of infringement to Beijing Wtown and lodged a complaint about trademark infringement with the industrial and commercial administrative department, requesting the Beijing Wtown to stop using the trademark "古北水镇" and the like on the packaging of alcoholic products. The court determined that the involved trademarks of Xiaohao shall be declared invalid on the grounds that they impaired the rights and interests of prior trade name of Beijing Wtown and the like. Beijing Wtown believed that Xiaohao was fully aware of the reputation of the trade name "古北水镇" of Beijing Wtown and of the unregistered trademark, but still committed the acts involved, constituting unfair competition. Therefore, Beijing Wtown filed a suit at the court, requesting that Xiaohao should be ordered to compensate for the economic losses and reasonable expenses totaling 500,000 yuan, and receive other punishment.

The court of first instance held that, prior to February 2014, "古水北镇", as the enterprise name and the trademark used on alcoholic products of Beijing Wtown which was engaged in providing tourism and catering services and the like, had gained certain reputation among the relevant public, and was able to be associated with Beijing Wtown. As an operator likewise located in Miyun District of Beijing and established later, Xiaohao should respect and reasonably avoid the rights and interests and the like of Beijing Wtown in respect of the prior trade name "古水北镇". Considering that Xiaohao's acts of applying for registration of the involved trademarks, issuing a warning letter of infringement and lodging a complaint about infringement had damaged the legitimate rights and interests of Beijing Wtown, violated the principle of honesty and credibility, and violated the provision of Article 2 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, constituting unfair competition, it was judged that Xiaohao should compensate Beijing Wtown for the economic loss of 280,000 yuan and the reasonable expenses of 35,000 yuan, and receive other punishment. Xiaohao was dissatisfied and filed an appeal. The judge of second instance rejected the appeal and upheld the original judgment.

Typical Significance

This case is a typical case where the trademarks registered and the complaint lodged in bad faith are determined to constitute unfair competition. In this case, based on the subjective fault of Xiaohao and the fact that the trademark squatted was declared invalid, it was determined that the sued acts constituted unfair competition, which is of positive significance in regulating the acts of trademark registration and use, enhancing the awareness of the correct trademark registration and use of the whole society, focusing on the building of a trusted brand, and helping to create a good business environment.

(Case Source: the Official WeChat Account of the Beijing Higher People's Court)

Case Brief

The petitioner: HUANG Jiankun

The respondent: WU LIEN-TEH International Medical Management Center, LLC

The main reasons of the petitioner: WU Lien-teh is the founder of China's epidemic prevention and quarantine undertaking, and the pioneer of China's modern medicine, epidemiology and other fields, and was the first president of the Chinese Medical Association. The registration of the disputed trademark violates the principle of honesty and credibility, is liable to cause confusion among the relevant public about the source of the services, etc., and has negative and adverse effects on China's public interests and public order, infringing the prior name right of WU Lien-teh.

After trial, the Trademark Office held that the evidence submitted by the petitioner showed that Mr. WU enjoys a very high reputation in the epidemic prevention and quarantine business as well as the fields such as modern medicine, microbiology, epidemiology, medical education and history of medicine in China, and that the disputed trademark, whose distinctively recognized portion is the characters "伍连德", when used on the approved services, is liable to make the public think that it has certain association with Mr. WU, and thus would cause confusion on the source and other characteristics of the services. The registration of the disputed trademark pertains to the circumstance as specified in Article 10.1(7) of the Trademark Law, and therefore the disputed trademark was declared invalid.

Typical Significance

Celebrities have relatively high influence and brand value, and there are many cases of taking advantage of famous people to seek illegitimate commercial interests in the practice of trademark examination and trial. The disputed trademark fully contains the name of China's modern medical pioneer, and the intention of using the reputation and influence thereof to unlawfully obtain competitive advantage in market is obvious. In order to safeguard public order and good custom and maintain the market order of fair competition, the provision of Article 10.1(7) of the Trademark Law is applied in this case to combat the act of free-ride, which has certain reference significance for similar cases. (LONG Xia)

(Case Source: website of the Trademark Office of CNIPA)

On the morning of November 8, 2023, the "2023 Cross-Strait Trademark Seminar", co-sponsored by the China Trademark Association and the Chinese Commercial & Industrial Coordination Society, was successfully held in Beijing. At the seminar, Attorney and Unitalen Partner Zhao Lei, delivered a keynote speech on "Examination of Trademark Coexistence Agreement", which is a hot issue in the field of trademark, and received the Certificate of Honor for "making positive contributions to cross-strait trademark brand exchanges" on behalf of Unitalen.

On the afternoon of the same day, a delegation of 38 people from the Chinese Commercial & Industrial Coordination Society, accompanied by WU Dongping, Secretary General of China Trademark Association, visited Unitalen. YU Zehui, Chairman of the partners meeting, President ZHANG Haixu, and Attorneys and Unitalen Partners ZHANG Yazhou, ZHAO Lei, TAN Yaqi, LI Qing, and others warmly received the guests and organized an exchange meeting. After the meeting, the delegation visited the office area of Unitalen, and exchanged views with the accompanying person of Unitalen on the issues of department settings and working process.

For more details, please click: 2023 Cross-Strait Trademark Seminar Successfully Held, Unitalen Warmly Received the Delegation from the Chinese Commercial & Industrial Coordination Society

On November 22, 2023, China Trademark magazine and IPHOUSE jointly released the list of Top 600 Trademark Agencies in China under the guidance of China Trademark Association. Unitalen ranked on the "AAAAA Trademark Agency (TOP 100)" list with stable comprehensive strength, outstanding professional services and excellent industry reputation.