On May 24, 2021, the China National Intellectual Property Administration(CNIPA) announced that, per the “Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China Concerning the Amendment of the Patent Law” passed at the 22nd meeting of the 13th National People’s Congress on October 17, 2020, the revised Patent Law will come into effect on June 1, 2021. As the revision still under review, the in order to ensure the implementation of the revised patent law, the CNIPA has stipulated the “Interim Measures for the Processing of Relevant Examinations Regarding the Implementation of the Revised Patent Law”, which will come in force on June 1, 2021. The main points are as follows:

Design Patent:

1. Effective from June 1, 2021, partial design patent applications can be submitted.

2. Effective from June 1, 2021, design patent applications can claim domestic priority.

3. Design patents which application date is June 1, 2021 and later enjoys a protection period of fifteen years.

Procedures: 

1. For invention and utility model applications which filing date is after June 1, 2021, the copy of priority application can be submitted within 16 months from the priority date, however, for design applications, it is still 3 months from the filing date.

2. For patent applications with the filing date after June 1, 2021, which has the first disclosure for the purpose of public interest in a national emergency or extraordinary situation, can request in paper form within 6 months without losing novelty grace period.

3. Effective from June 1, the principle of good faith and whether the invention involves nuclear transformation methods and obtained materials shall be examined in the preliminary examination, substantive examination, and reexamination of patents.

Pharmaceutical Patents:

Effective from June 1, 2021, for new drug-related invention patents, the patentee can request for the compensation of patent protection period in paper form within 3 months from the date of obtaining the new drug’s authorization. The compensated period cannot exceed five years and the total effective patent right term after the new drug approved for listing shall not exceed 14 years.

Patent Protection and Enforcement: 

1. Effective from June 1, the alleged infringer can request the Patent Office to issue a utility model and design evaluation report.

2. Effective from June 1, open license can be requested.

3. For the invention patents that are to be announced granted after June 1, 2021, if the announcement is made after more than 4 years from the filing date and more than 3 years from the substantive examination request date, the applicant can request for compensation of the patent protection period within 3 months from the announcement date in paper form, except for unreasonable delay caused by the applicant.