China's five-year plan

The latest patent application statistics from China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) reveal that the number of patent applications that were filed in the first 10 months of 2011 surpassed those of the whole of 2010.

Up to the end of October 2011, the office had received 1,238,588 patent applications in comparison with 2010’s total of 1,222,286. As for invention patent (regular patent) applications, in the first 10 months of 2011 SIPO received 394,740 applications in comparison with 2010’s total of 391,177.

A report released by Thomson Reuters predicts that China will overtake the US and Japan to become the world’s largest filer of patents in 2011. However, it also notes that Chinese applicants are not as active when filing patent applications overseas. Only 5.6 percent of Chinese patent applications are filed overseas, compared to 48.8 percent of US applications and 38.7 percent of Japanese applications.

The five-year countdown

An assembly of the country’s National People’s Congress held in March 2011 approved an outline of the Twelfth Five-Year (2011-2015) Plan for National Economic and Social Development, which is China’s top development plan.

The plan, for the first time in government papers of this kind, includes an index that requires 3.3 invention patents to be owned by Chinese nationals per 10,000 people. This is a part of the country’s efforts to implement the national intellectual property rights (IPR) strategy and build an innovation-oriented country.

In China, there are three types of patents available under the patent law: invention, utility model and design patents. The invention patent is the equivalent of a regular patent available from other countries, such as the utility patent in the US.

The plan sets no targets for the other two types of patent as they are not considered to be as important for making the country more innovative.As of the end of June 2010, the index—the number of invention patents owned per 10,000 people—was 2.0. This was a 0.3 increase on the figure at the end of 2010 (1.7), according to offi cial SIPO statistics.

As part of measures to fulfil the patent index by 2015, SIPO released its own five-year plan for patent examination (2011-2015). According to the plan, the ultimate goal during this period is to make China’s patent examination system equal to those of the world’s leading IP offices.

During the five-year term, China will conclude prosecuting 1.85 million invention patent applications, 3.2 million utility model applications and 3 million design applications. Invention patent application pendency times will be shortened to 22 months, and utility model applications and design applications will be maintained at three months.

For patent application re-examinations and patent invalidation actions, pendency times will be reduced to 12 and six months, respectively. In terms of the number of patent fi lings, the expected annual figures for 2015 are 750,000 (invention), 900,000 (utility model) and 850,000 (design). SIPO also expects to receive 50,000 Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) international applications in 2015.

In 2010, the number of Chinese-origin PCT applications was 12,337. Patent examination moves home (partly) As China’s capital city and where SIPO is situated, Beijing is the home of Chinese patent examination. However, as examination workloads have increased dramatically, SIPO has looked to expand outside Beijing.

On September 22, 2011, a SIPO branch office was unveiled in Guangzhou, the capital city of Southern China’s Guangdong Province. The branch is called Guangdong Patent Examination Cooperation Center and is under SIPO’s jurisdiction.

It is expected to become the first institution of its kind for substantive patent examination outside Beijing.Chinese patent documents awarded must-search status On September 29, 2011, a proposal put forward by SIPO was passed unanimously by member states of the PCT Union at a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) assembly.

It makes Chinese patent documentation part of the PCT minimum documentation as of July 1, 2012. From then on, PCT member states are required to search Chinese invention patent documentation when performing examinations for PCT applications.

The PCT minimum documentation refers to the must-search documentation when examiners of PCT member states examine a PCT application, which represents the most advanced technologies of the most innovative countries in the world. At present, the minimum documentation includes the patent documentation that is officially published by France, Germany, Japan, Russia, Switzerland, the UK, the US, Korea, the European Patent Office and the PCT organisation.

China is the 11th jurisdiction to become a must-search country/organisation.On October 12, 2011, another branch, Jiangsu Patent Examination Cooperation Center, which is also under SIPO’s jurisdiction, was unveiled. This branch is located in Suzhou, a city that is home to heavy, high-tech industries in Eastern China’s Jiangsu Province.

PPH connects China overseas

As agreed by SIPO and the Japan Patent Office (JPO), a pilot patent prosecution highway (PPH) project was launched on November 1, 2011. The pilot will end on October 31, 2012. Under the project, which will be run by both offices, patent applicants may file a PPH request with SIPO or JPO for expedited patent examination.

SIPO and the US Patent and Trademark Office launched a similar project on December 1, 2011, and SIPO and the Korea Intellectual Property Office will launch their own PPH project on March 1, 2012. SIPO and JPO have been jointly implementing a pre-pilot PPH programme since May 2011. By the end of 2010, invention patent applications filed in China reached 3.33 million. In the same year, PCT applications filed by Chinese applicants ranked fourth in the world.

There is no doubt that the inclusion of Chinese patent documentation will improve the quality and coverage of searches.

ZTE leads PCT applications

According to statistics released by WIPO, ZTE, one of China’s leading telecommunication companies, was the largest PCT filer in the first quarter of 2011. During this period ZTE filed 974 applications. The company ranked second for PCT filings in 2010 with 1863 applications.

Trademark prosecution to speed up Trademark applications have flooded SIPO, causing examination delays and invoking complaints from both and international applicants. In response, measures are being taken to accelerate examinations.

According to a government plan released on October 14, 2011, trademark application pendency times are expected to be shortened to 10 months by 2015. By the same year, trademark opposition and trademark review cases pendency times are expected to be cut to 20 and 18 months, respectively.

China ranks sixth in international trademark registrations

China became the world’s sixth largest country of origin for international trademark registration in 2011, moving up one place from the previous year. China is now among the world’s most active countries in terms of the number of applications.

Statistics reveal that WIPO received 39,687 applications worldwide in 2010, 1928 of which were filed by Chinese applicants. Cartier awarded 500,000 RMB in trademark dispute The Shanghai No.1 Intermediate Court decided a trademark infringement dispute between luxury jeweller and watch manufacturer Cartier and several Chinese companies in September 2011.

After hearing the first instance case, the court found that the local companies had committed trademark infringement. Both an injunction and damages of 500,000 RMB (approximately $80,000) were awarded by the court. The court found the defendants liable for trademark infringement for using the proprietor’s registered mark Cartier and its Chinese version on their ceramic products.

Although the ceramic products distributed by the defendants did not belong to the same class as the marks in dispute, the court held that the proprietor enjoys “beyond-class” protection because its marks had already been granted well-known mark status.