New year, new resolutions! The CNIPA has recently announced a pilot program that provides Hong Kong applicants the opportunity to expedite their patent applications filed in China. Starting 1 Jan 2023, Hong Kong permanent residents and entities legally registered in Hong Kong can request prioritized examination for their invention patent applications before the CNIPA. To be eligible, the patent application must be: To request a prioritized examination, the applicant will need to submit a request form along with other required documents to the CNIPA at one of the representative offices in Guangdong or Shenzhen, by mail or in person. Of particular note, applicants must submit information about the existing technology…
- Accelerated Patent Examination, China, China Patent Office, CNIPA, Hong Kong, Inventions, Prioritized Examination
- China, Court Cases, Courts, Drafting, Inventions, Patent Law, Patent Re-examination Board, Quality, Supreme People's Court
Chinese Courts Cares More About Patent Quality Now (A Doctrine of Equivalents Story)
There is no doubt that the drafting quality of a patent can be crucial in determining the success (or failure!) of the patent during litigation. However, due to various reasons, patents often fail to use the right drafting strategies that best protect the invention. Too often, inexperienced or unsophisticated patent drafters merely listen to an inventor and literally describe the features of an invention. Worst yet, some inventors try to draft their own application, making the similar mistake of describing an invention too specifically and narrowly, leaving plenty of “design-around” space. Even though a patent may grant, the protection scope for that invention is weak, at best, and may even…
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China Announcing More Proposed Amendments to the Examination Guidelines in 2022
It’s been a year and a half since the new Chinese Patent Law came into effect (1 June 2021). Although various versions of draft Examination Guidelines have been released, thus far no official finalized versions have been confirmed. On October 31, 2022, yet another new list of proposed amendments was published[1], this time consolidating the previous sets of proposed changes from 2020 to 2021 to the Examination Guidelines. As this version looks closer to a finalized version, we are cautiously optimistic that an official set of guidelines may soon be released. As such, we think it’s worth looking a bit more closely into this current draft version. Below are a…