Updates on the Fourth Revision of the Chinese Patent Law

The Chinese Patent Law has been in effect since 1985 and was revised in 1992 for the first time, in 2000 for the second time, and in 2008 for the third time. Recently, the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) started the progress for the fourth revision, which is intended to lay more emphasis on the enforcement actions.

On August 10, 2012, the SIPO released the draft of the fourth amendment of the Chinese Patent Law to solicit public comments. The main purpose of the fourth revision is to greatly enhance the power of the patent administrative authority and the people’s court in handling the patent infringement cases. Also the infringer will face greater penalty. On April 3, 2014, the SIPO release the drafts for this revision with text contrast (in Chinese). Additional changes are observed in the version submitted for review and promulgation than the one seeking public comments.

On September 22, 2014, the SIPO open a specific email account patentlaw@sipo.gov.cn to receive public comments. At the same time, opinions can also be submitted via mail to the Legal Affair Department of the SIPO, at 6 Xitucheng Rd, Haidian, Beijing, post code 100009.

For more information about the fourth revision, visit (Chinese only): http://www.sipo.gov.cn/ztzl/ywzt/zlfjqssxzdscxg/.

We will follow up the development and provide our insights in the Article section.