Intellectual Property

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企业应关注美国商业秘密法的域外适用性

Following the Seventh Circuit’s recent decision in Motorola Solutions Inc. v. Hytera Communications Corp. Ltd., the United States may become a destination venue for resolution of global trade secret disputes. The Seventh Circuit held that U.S. trade secret law applies extraterritorially—reaching the theft of trade secrets outside the United States—so long as “an act in furtherance” of the offense was committed in the United States. The court held, for example, that marketing products in the United States qualified as an “act in furtherance” if the products were made using stolen trade secrets. Once an “act in furtherance” is identified, damages can be based on a company’s global sales. Motorola, for example, resulted in an award of $135.8 million in compensatory damages based on Hytera’s worldwide sales. Similar to the global impact of U.S. antitrust and anti-bribery laws, the Seventh Circuit’s decision highlights the critical importance to companies of considering U.S. trade secret laws. For example, if a company suffers the theft of its trade secrets anywhere in the world, it should consider the United States as a possible venue for bringing a legal claim. Conversely, companies should take measures to train employees and ensure compliance with U.S. trade secret laws even if the employees are located outside of the United States.Continue Reading Companies Should Take Notice of the Extraterritorial Reach of U.S. Trade Secret Law

On August 6, 2024, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) announced the fee standards for patent term adjustment (PTA) requests. Before this announcement, all submitted requests for PTA were pending review. Since August 27, 2024, CNIPA has published five batches of decisions, granting PTA to 690 invention patents, marking the official implementation of PTA in practice. This development will allow more Chinese invention patents to benefit from protection beyond the standard 20-year term. Below is a brief overview of the PTA under China’s Patent Law.Continue Reading China’s Implementation of Patent Term Adjustment

On December 11, 2023, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China announced its decision to amend the Implementing Regulations of the Patent Law of the People’s Republic of China (the “2023 Regulations”), marking the first update in over 13 years since the last amendment in 2010. The 2023 Regulations take effect on January 20, 2024. This article highlights some of the major changes introduced by the 2023 Regulations that patent practitioners should be aware of when managing their patent portfolio in China.Continue Reading Highlights of Revised Regulations for Implementing Patent Law of China

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Blockchain patent applications may be divided into two types: underlying technologies of blockchain, such as consensus methods, security, etc., and applications of blockchain in, e.g., fintech, legal, and other industries. In patent examination, the first type, because it recites underlying technology improvement, rarely elicits subject matter rejections. The second type, applications of blockchain, are often found to be directed to an abstract idea. This article analyzes a recent Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decision in a blockchain patent application and explores drafting and prosecution strategies to anticipate subject matter scrutiny.
Continue Reading Blockchain Patentability Through The Lens Of A Recent PTAB Decision

On February 25, 2016, The State Counsel Legislative Affairs Office (“SCLAO”) released a draft amendment (“Draft Amendment”) of the PRC Anti-Unfair Competition Law (“AUCL”) for comment by industry and other stakeholders.  Article 5 of the 1993 AUCL provides the basis for claims against Business Operators for unfair trade practices involving the misuse and misappropriation of trade dress, enterprise names, and other commercial signs.  The Draft Amendment of the AUCL contains some interesting and encouraging language, but could benefit from additional clarification and fine tuning.  Industry has until March 25, 2016 to submit comments on the Draft Amendment to the AUCL, and numerous industry organizations have been collecting comments for submission to SCLAO over the last few weeks.  Here are some highlights of proposed changes to Article 5, and some of the open issues that will hopefully be addressed before a final version of the revised AUCL sees the light of day.
Continue Reading Improper Use of Commercial Signs — Proposed Revisions to Article 5 of the PRC Anti-Unfair Competition Law

On August 26, 2015, the Trademark Office of The State Administration For Industry & Commerce of the People’s Republic of China (“TMO”) issued revised guidelines entitled Applications for Recordal of Licenses of Registered Trademarks, Recordal of Licensor/Licensee Name Change, Recordal of Early Termination of Trademark Licenses and Recordal of Withdrawal of Trademark Licenses (“2015 Guidelines”). The 2015 Guidelines are a slightly revised version of guidelines issued in 2014 that were intended to bring the license recordal regime in line with the 2014 Trademark Law and its Implementing Regulations.  The TMO has not indicated whether the 1997 Measures for the Filing of Recordals of Trademark License Contracts (“1997 Recordal Measures”) will remain in effect after the establishment of new recordal procedures and the issuance of the 2015 Guidelines, but it is clear that a number of provisions of those earlier measures have been rendered moot under the new regime. 
Continue Reading Recent Developments in Recordal Procedures for Trademark Licenses in China

The term “Ambush Marketing” originally came from inappropriate sport advertisement in western countries. It involves a marketing strategy wherein the advertisers associate themselves with, and therefore capitalize on, a particular event without paying any sponsorship/license fee. As more and more film producers are engaging such marketing strategies to promote their films over recent years in the PRC, there have been controversies on whether Ambush Marketing activities should be deemed as infringement in the Film Industry.
Continue Reading China Court Ruled Infringement for Ambush Marketing in Film Industry

A revision to the Trademark Law of the People’s Republic of China (“Trademark Law”) was adopted at the 4th Session of the Standing Committee of the Twelfth National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China on August 30, 2013. The revised Trademark Law will come into effect on May 1, 2014.

This latest version, which we will refer to as the “2013 Trademark Law”, is essentially the third version of an original Trademark Law adopted in 1982, and follows earlier revisions adopted in 1993 and 2001. The 2013 Trademark Law was adopted after the circulation of numerous draft versions for public comment beginning in 2009, and is thus the product of a long process of debate and compromise among government stakeholders, industry, legal academia, and the legal profession in the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”).Continue Reading Comments on Recent Changes to the Trademark Law of the People’s Republic of China

While the PRC Trademark Law and Implementing Regulations provide no real guidance on how or whether consent letters can be used to overcome trademark application rejections on relative grounds, in recent years, the TRAB has accepted such letters to support arguments that a rejected trademark should be registered on appeal. There has, however, been very little guidance as to the standards that should be applied by the TRAB, and by the Beijing courts when considering the relevance of consent letters, and because of this, TRAB decisions involving consent letters or co-existence agreements have been inconsistent. This Higher People’s Court decision provides important clarifications as to trademark appeals practice in China as it relates to consent letters and co-existence agreements, and as to how such appeals cases are likely to be handled by the TRAB and the Beijing courts going forward.
Continue Reading Beijing Higher People’s Court Clarifies Usage of Consent Letters to Overcome Trademark Rejections in the PRC

By Harris Gao 

On November 12, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) released the Draft Measures on Service Invention《职务发明条例草案(征求意见稿)》(the “Draft Measures”) for public comments. Generally speaking, the Draft Measures enhance the rights of employee inventors, but create some uncertainty for employers.Continue Reading SIPO’s Draft Measures on Service Invention