China to Release Revised Implementing Regulations of the Patent Law and the Guidelines for Patent Examination by End of December 2022

On October 28, 2022, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) published the “In-depth implementation of the ‘Opinions on Strengthening Intellectual Property Protection’ promotion plan” (深入实施《关于强化知识产权保护的意见》推进计划) that sets target dates for the release of various regulations and guidelines to clarify how China’s 2021 amendments to the patent law will be implemented. Specifically, CNIPA is targeting the revision of the Implementing Regulations of the Patent Law and the Guidelines for Patent Examination by end of December 2022 “and continue to advance,” which implies further amendments to same. These revisions may be of particular interest to pharmaceutical patentees as the revisions should explain in detail how patent term extension and patent term adjustment will work. Further, China’s new open licensing system that offers reduced or eliminated annuities for open licensing of patents may be clarified. Longer term, utility models will undergo an inventiveness examination (which was hinted at in the last draft patent examination guidelines) with CNIPA reforming the utility model system by 2025 by introducing an “obvious” lack of inventiveness examination. In total, CNIPA announced 26 revisions or drafts to intellectual property laws, regulations and guidelines to be completed over the next few years and 114 points in total to strengthen IP. Read more