Administrative enforcement of patents

01-12-2010

Stephen Yang

Administrative enforcement of IP rights has long been a characteristic of the Chinese IP enforcement system.

Following the amendment to the Chinese Patent Law and its implementing regulations, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) published Amendments to the Rules on Administrative Enforcement of Patent Rights (Draft for Comments) on September 1, 2010. The public consultation period closed on September 30, 2010.

The rules elaborate the role and power of administrative bodies to govern enforcement of patent rights, including handling patent infringements, mediation of disputes over patent rights and handling patent passing-off cases. In the draft amendment, the current rules (dating from 2001) were amended to be consistent with the new law and regulations.

The administrative bodies responsible for patent enforcement are local intellectual property offices, which are quasi-independent of SIPO and can be found all over China. In terms of administrative enforcement of patent rights, SIPO is supposed to give support and guidance to the local IP offices.


SIPO, IP rights

WIPR