Made in China

The 1999 Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs has been in effect in China since May 5, 2022.

On April 22, 2022, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) published an Announcement on Interim Measures for Handling the Relevant Matters after Accession to the Hague Agreement (No. 481) and gave more details on how the CNIPA will handle international design applications.

The following points are given on the basis of the Declaration made by China (No.6/2022), the Announcement, the Patent Examination Guidelines, as well as our experience in handling Chinese design applications.

Examination by the CNIPA

A registered international design application is considered to have met the formal requirements for filing a Chinese design application. The CNIPA might however make examination of obvious defects over the claimed designs, including among others: