Member Update-NEW LAW AND REGULATION LETTER,西南美国商会微信公众号文章

NEW LAW AND REGULATION LETTER

(Intellectual Property Law)

13th Five-Year Plan on Scientific and Technological Innovation

Issuing Authority：State Council Date Issued：August 8, 2016

On August 8, 2016, the 13th Five-Year Plan on national innovative development plan was issued by the State Council of China, depicting the scientific and technological innovation development of China in next five years. According to the plan, the comprehensive ability of innovation would rank the 15th place in the world. The S&T and innovation policy would continue improving. The IPR would be effectively protected. Among the major indexes, by 2020, the contributing percentage of science and technology would increase from 55.3% to 60%. The number of invention patent owned by per 10,000 heads would increase from 6.3 to 12, that of PCT filing would be doubled from the currently 30,500.

"It reflects the combination of S&T and economy and innovation, and pays extra attention to coordination in the whole process of innovation links," said Lu Wei, director general of Technological Economy Research Department of Development Research Center of the State Council who engaged in the formulation of the plan. "The combination of S&T innovation and industrial development would be conducive to the reform in each links of innovation. The innovation-related measure in the plan is not only a measure for S&T, but also includes a group of measures including economy, taxation, finance, trade, IP and standard-setting. The IP-related measures would be highlighted in the plan." Lu adds.

Currently, innovation has become a power force for development. IP is playing an increasingly significant role in inspiring innovation. The plan stresses to implement IP strategy and accelerate to building China into an IP power house; improve the IP laws and regulations; aggravate punishment for the crime in IP infringement, improve compensation, conduct punishment compensation system and reduce safeguarding cost; improve enforcement mechanism for IP infringement, strengthen the coordination between administrative enforcement and judicial protection, beef up IP comprehensive administrative enforcement; establish a green channel for patent examination; guide the market players to create and use IP, promote the commercialization of innovative achievements by building a IP interests share mechanism; implement IP management in central finance S&T plan, establish an IP evaluation system; build a multiple IP system for serving business and foster a group of brand IP services.

Amendments to the PCT Regulations as from 1 July 2016

Issuing Authority：PCT UNION

Effective Date： July 1, 2016

Amendments to the PCT regulations contains five remarkable changes. The first one is omission of certain information from publication (Rule 48) or public file access (Rule 94), and time limit for a request under Rule 48 and Rule 94. The second one is obligation of the RO to forward to the IB all documents received from the applicant in relation to a request to restore the priority right. The third one is extension of Rule 9.2 to the IB and SISA to suggest to the applicant to correct the PCT application before publication if it contains certain expressions defined under Rule 9.1. The next one is extension of force majeure provisions to time limits missed due to “general unavailability of electronic communication services”. The last one is expansion of the accepted languages of communication from the applicant to the International Bureau through ePCT to the particular language of publication (in addition to English and French).

Regulations on Reducing Patent Fees

Issuing Authority： The Ministry of Finance; National Development and Reform Commission

Date Issued：August 8, 2016

The regulations on Reducing Patent Fees jointly issued by the Ministry of Finance and National Development and Reform Commission would come into force on September 1st this year. According to the roughly calculation by the Ministry of Finance, the patent fee would be reduced by about 4.1 billion yuan every year after implementation of the opinion.

The regulations were formulated to implement the State Council's opinions on accelerating building China into IP power house, better support the development of patent work and reduce the burden on companies and individuals. The regulations expand the body scope of subject, simplify the procedures, increase penalties, reiterated patent agencies and agents acted in accordance with professional ethics, which could meet the requirement for accelerating IP development and inspire public's enthusiasm of innovation.

In 2006, SIPO formulated regulations on reducing the rate of patent cost based on the former implementation regulations of Chinese patent law. Nearly 70% patent applicants or patentees enjoyed the above privileges. In 2015, a total of 3.5 billion yuan of patent fees were reduced.

Interim Measures for the Internet Advertising Administration

Issuing Authority：State Administration for Industry and Commerce

Date Issued：July 8, 2016

On July 8, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) announced the Interim Measures for the Internet Advertising Administration, effective September 1, 2016. These measures, based on the 2015 Advertising Law, are the first of its kind to fully regulate Internet advertising. Advertisers, publishers, and internet information service providers shall comply with the following rules:

Ø ensure that paid search advertising is clearly differentiable from natural search results and that all results are clearly marked (Consistent with CAC's regulations on Internet Search Services);

Ø pop up ads must be closable with a single click, and no ad links can be included in email without user consent;

Ø Internet advertising publishers and operators must examine all relevant documents, check ad content, create filing systems and hire necessary staff to examine all content;

Ø Internet Information service providers who are not involved in Internet advertising business activities but provide a service for online advertising should remove any ads that they know or should know are illegal.

These new measures place more responsibility on Internet advertisers and create many liabilities for Internet advertising publishers and operators as well as media-side and advertising information exchange platforms. With the new measures in place starting in September, we expect to see search engines, e-commerce, social media, and other Internet media sites clearly label paid ads and email service providers reduce the amount of ad promotion links sent through emails.

The Opinions on Promoting the Reform to Facilitate Trademark Registration

Issuing Authority：the State Administration for Industry and Commerce

Date Issued：July 25, 2016

On July 25, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) issued the Opinions on Promoting the Reform to Facilitate Trademark Registration. This reform aims to simplify the trademark registration formalities.

The Opinions state that conveniences will be developed for trademark registration applications by expanding the channels for applying, simplifying registration formalities, optimizing registration processes, improving the trademark examination mechanism, and strengthening trademark credit supervision and management. By adjusting internal procedures, the period for issuing accepted trademark applications will be shortened from six months to three months.

To improve trademark application channels, the Opinions specify the imperative to:

Ø authorize local departments to accept trademark registration applications;

Ø establish trademark examination and cooperation centers outside of Beijing;

Ø provide online application services.

*Partial source from USITO and SIPO.

This letter is for a general reference, instead of a professional advice of our lawyers on a specific case. If any questions or suggestions, please contact the editor of this issue.

Yingzi Li, Chinese Lawyer, Patent Attorney , about ten years in related fields.

E-mail: [email protected]

Mobile: 18981727829