Cross-straits IP agreement

According to the agreement, the two sides will mutually recognise priority rights on the basis of the first filing date for patents, trademarks and variety rights, and make relevant arrangements to protect them.

On November 22, 2010, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) started to accept patent applications from Taiwan applicants with requests for priority based on existing Taiwan patent applications. The priority period is the same as that prescribed in the Paris Convention: 12 months for invention and utility model applications and six months for industrial design applications.

On the same day, the Chinese trademark office also started to accept trademark applications from Taiwan applicants based on existing Taiwan applications. The priority date for both patent and trademark applications must be on or after September 12, 2010—the effective date of the agreement on cross-straits intellectual property protection.

This agreement aims to bolster creativity and innovation on both sides of the straits.

All-China patent strategy

SIPO issued the All-China Patent Strategy 2011-2020 on November 11, 2010. The patent strategy is designed to improve the nation’s core competitiveness using the patent system and other patent resources, so as to carry out the objectives published in the 2008 Outline of National Intellectual Property Strategy.

According to the patent strategy, as part of the proposed improvement to the patent system, provisions on the so-called ‘service inventions/creations’ (and the inventor/employer relationship) will be reviewed to reasonably determine ownership of patent rights. The patent strategy also touches on the possibility of creating a separate design law for industrial designs.

To fully use patents in the government’s policies, the strategy proposes to further improve the patent index system and to introduce it into the national economic and technology evaluation system.

The patent strategy proposes to further strengthen the power of administrative offices by authorising county-level (one level below citylevel) IP offices to do investigations and make rulings, and giving local IP offices the right to enforce their rulings. Currently, only city and provincial IP offices have the power to investigate and make rulings.

“The patent strategy says that, in 2015, the number of patents per million people and the number of patent filings abroad should both be twice the current figure and by 2020, four times the current figure. The plan is for 8 percent of large domestic industrial enterprises to be using the patent system by 2015 and 10 percent by 2020.”

The patent strategy further sets out specific quantitative targets for 2015 and 2020. Specifically, in 2015, the number of patent applications, including invention, utility model and industrial design, should reach 2 million, which is roughly twice the current figure. 2009 saw nearly 980,000 such applications, and it is reasonable to believe that the figure in 2010 will be higher. Further, the patent strategy says that, in 2015, the number of patents per million people and the number of patent filings abroad should both be twice the current figure and by 2020, four times the current figure.

The plan is for 8 percent of large domestic industrial enterprises to be using the patent system by 2015 and 10 percent by 2020. China aims to be in the top two countries internationally for granting invention patents to domestic applicants by 2015; the monetary value of patent transactions would be Rmb100 billion ($15 billion) by then.

Examination times will come down too: by 2015, substantive examination will be shortened to 22 months for invention applications from the current 25.8 months and to three months for utility model and design applications from the current 5.8 and 5.5 months respectively. The re-examination procedure and the invalidation procedure are to be shortened to 12 months and six months respectively, from the current 7.4 months.

With the implementation of an electronic examination system, many utility model and design applications are already granted roughly three months after filing. In terms of manpower, by 2015, the number of examiners will reach 9,000, while there will be 10,000 qualified patent attorneys. The patent strategy will help the nation to speed up changes to its domestic industrial structure and the pattern of economic development so as to cope with worldwide economic and technology competition.

Stephen Yang is a partner at Peksung Intellectual Property Ltd. He can be contacted at: yyong@peksung.com