Brief introduction of prioritized examination of patent invalidation proceedings in China

• Author: Yingchun Liu
• Published date: 03/07/2020
• Citation: jd0044
• Date: 03 July 2020
• Subject Matter: Intellectual Property

2020/9/11 Brief introduction of prioritized examination of patent invalidation proceedings in China | China Law Insight

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CHINA LAW INSIGHT

Brief introduction of prioritized examination of

patent invalidation proceedings in China

By King & Wood Mallesons on July 3, 2020

By Yingchun Liu, patent attorney King and Wood Mallesons’ IP group

According to pertinent provisions of the Chinese Patent Law, where any entity or

individual thinks the grant of a Chinese patent right fails to comply with provisions since

the date of grant and announcement of the patent, it or he may request Reexamination

and Invalidation Examination Department of China National Intellectual Property

Administration (CNIPA) to declare the patent right invalid.

In recent years, the period from acceptance of an invalidation request by the

Reexamination and Invalidation Examination Department to issuance of a decision on

examination of the invalidation request continues to be shortened. However, since many

patent invalidation cases involve civil infringement litigation proceedings, relevant parties

still expect the period to be further shortened. To further improve service quality, on June

27, 2017 CNIPA published Methods for Management of Prioritized Examination of Patent

Invalidation Proceedings (the Methods), which become effective on August 1, 2017,

wherein contents regarding prioritized examination of invalidation request of patents,

utility models and designs were added.

At present, the Methods have already been enforced over two years. Some problems are

hereby introduced briefly.

1.Conditions for requesting for prioritized examination of patent invalidation cases

First, attention should be paid to conditions for requesting for prioritized examination of

patent invalidation cases. If these conditions are not satisfied, only an ordinary process

should be taken. These conditions are summarized and classified into the following

classes: