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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

By Jiamu Sun

The Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China (“Copyright Law”) came into effect on June 1, 1991, and has since been followed by two rounds of revisions. The first round of revisions was in order to accommodate China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (“WTO”), and became effective on October 27, 2001. The second round of revisions was in order to implement WTO rulings in Sino-USA intellectual property rights disputes, and became effective on April 1, 2010.…

Continue Reading Draft Amendment to China’s Copyright Law

The State Copyright Bureau recently released a new set of copyright pledges registration rules to replace its current system. The "Measures for Registration of Copyright Pledges" (the "Measures") will become effective on January 1, 2011. Copyrights, like other property rights, can be pledged as a financial security. China has not updated its current copyright pledges registration system since it went into effect on September 23, 1996. The key provisions of the Measures are highlighted below.…

Continue Reading China Revamps Its Outdated Copyright Pledges System

Article 69 of the current PRC Patent Law (the “Law”) established the “Patent Exhaustion Doctrine,” providing: “None of the following shall be deemed an infringement upon a patent right: (1) using, promising to sell, selling or importing any patented product or product directly obtained through a patented process after such product is sold by the patentee or with the permission thereof; …”…

Continue Reading Patent Exhaustion Doctrine in China

The Trademark Law of the People’s Republic of China (1982) has gone through two major amendments in the past two decades. The latest amendment was adopted on October 27, 2001. On April 20, 2010, the Supreme Court of the People’s Republic of China issued the Opinions of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Relating to Trials of Administrative Cases Concerning the Grant and Confirmation of Trademark Rights (hereafter “the Opinion”) to provide more guidance and clarification in this area.…

Continue Reading Opinions of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Relating to Trials of Administrative Cases Concerning the Grant and Confirmation of Trademark Rights

On April 20, 2010, China’s Supreme People’s Court published its first Intellectual Property Protection by Chinese Courts in 2009 White Paper (“White Paper”). The White Paper provides a review of Intellectual Property Rights (“IPR”) enforcement in China in 2009.…

Continue Reading China’s Supreme People’s Court Publishes White Paper on Intellectual Property Protection by Chinese Courts

The third amendment of Chinese Patent Law went into effect on October 1, 2009, and since then there has been a need for new rules detailing its implementation. On January 18, 2010, the Chinese State Council published the third revision of the Implementing Rules For Patent Law (the "Rules"). The Rules are set to take effect on February 1, 2010.…

Continue Reading China’s State Council Publishes New Implementing Rules For The New Patent Law

On December 8, 2009, the largest Bit Torrent (“BT”) download base, BTChina, was shut down by the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (“SARFT”) for “lack of Certificate”. SARFT explained that the regulation of Internet audio-visual services is a long-term project. Until the site resolves its piracy issue it can not be re-opened. According to a CCTV report on December 17, 2009, SARFT announced that it had shut down more than 700 websites, including nearly 30 of the BT download sites. This incident raises deep concern among Chinese netizens: why did the Chinese government suddenly intensify efforts to crack down BT sites? Does this mean that the peer-to-peer (P2P) download technology will meet its end in the near future?
Continue Reading Is Law Enough for Regulating P2P Technology?