Amended Measures for Patent Administrative Law Enforcement Taking Effect
State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) has published the Amended Measures for Patent Administrative Law Enforcement on July 1, 2015.
The administrative enforcement features simple procedure and fast-paced process. To strengthen the patent protection, the revision shortens the process of handling infringement dispute into 3 months; while 1 month extension remained for complicated cases (Article 21). Besides, the filing period of patent dispute mediation and acts of counterfeiting patents investigation changes from “timely” into 5-10 working days (Article 24 and Article 28). The announcement date is also set within 20 working days (Article 46).
Amended administration enforcement emphasizes on exhibition and e-commerce field as well.
Current patent laws regulates the right of “offering to sell” for design patent owners, while there is no IP protection for exhibition. This revision orders the authorities should strengthen the administration enforcement in exhibition and e-commerce field. The acts include fast mediation and handling of patent infringement dispute during exhibition and on e-commerce platform, and timely investigation of patent counterfeiting (Article 8).
About the exhibition, it orders the infringer should withdraw the infringing exhibits, destroy or seal up the corresponding publicity materials, and change or cover corresponding panels. As to the Internet infringement, the authorities should notify the provider of e-commerce platform to timely delete, shield, or break link to relevant web pages, which can stop the infringement and counterfeit in time (Article 43, Article 45).