On November 17, 2017, China Trademark Office issued “Opinions on Deepening Reform of Trademark Registration Facilitation and Raising Efficiency of Trademark Registration” (hereinafter referred to as “the Opinions”), featuring the following:

1.By the end of 2018:

The period for issuing filing receipts for trademark registration applications will be shortened to 1 month;

The period for examination of trademark applications will be shortened to 6 months;

the period for examination of trademark assignment applications will be shortened to 4 months;

the period for examination of trademark modification or renewal applications will be shortened to 2 months; and

the blind period for trademark search will be shortened to 2 months.

2.By the end of the first half of 2018, filing receipts for trademark registration applications will be issued by email and available for printing online by the interested party.

3.Promote the use of electronic means for serving documents ...Provide SMS and Email notification service, to replace or optimize issuance of paper documents.

4.Accelerate the constructing project for online filing of trademark review, opposition and non-use cancellation, etc.

5.Study possible reform of trademark opposition and review procedure, and the feasibility of shortening the 3-month statutory opposition period to 2 months.

6.Explore strengthening use requirement of registered trademarks, discuss the establishment of ex officio cancellation system against idled registered trademarks, as well as raised obligation for trademark registrant to provide evidence of use after certain period of registration and at renewal.

For the full article of the Opinions in Chinese, please visit

http://sbj.saic.gov.cn/gzdt/201711/t20171117_270420.html.

Per the press briefing held by SAIC, the number of China trademark registration applications keeps up the fast-paced growth; from Jan to Oct of 2017, there had been 4.413 million registration applications, 722,000 more than that of last year. Among this, 3.771 million were filed online, accounting for 85.45% of the total.

Meanwhile, the value of Chinese domestic trademarks continues to increase; branding plays a more prominent role in leading the economic growth. China is the fastest growing country in respects of global brand value. According to the statistics of brand rating agencies, Chinese brand value has increased by 937% over the past 12 years, currently accounting for 11% of total value of the global top 100 brands.

Recently, the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) and SIPO jointly issued the third catalogue of IP in national defense science and technology Industry, which contains information of 400 intellectual properties recommended for transformation to civil utilization.

Prior to this, two catalogues had been published containing totally 1,080 intellectual properties, among which IPs such as DC traction power supply system for rail transit, laser scanning module, and high reliability computing platforms developed by China Standard Software Co., Ltd. have been transformed to application in national economic field through direct utilization, license / transfer, cooperative development, and asset investment, etc., which has realized great economic benefits.

October 26, 2017, Beijing Intellectual Property Court held public hearing of the administrative litigation case initiated by Gmedia Beijing Co. Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Gmedia”) against Patent Reexamination Board concerning invalidation of Gmedia’s 2-dimensional code patent. Tencent, represented by Unitalen, joined the case as the third party. Unitalen lawyers Fanwen Kong and Lei Liu attended the hearing.

The patent at issue was granted on September 15, 2010 under number ZL 2006 1 0078994.4 (hereinafter referred to as “the patent at issue”). It claims protection of a system overlaying a 2-dimentional code and a visually readable logo by using the error correction function inherent in the 2-dimensional code to achieve the effect of commercial promotion. The following 2-dimensional code with McDonald logo is an example:

Over the recent years, Gmedia had been sending warning letters to many companies alleging their use of the so-called “synthesized 2-dimentional code” has infringed on its patent right, demanding royalty fee and even initiating civil actions against some of these companies. Monalisa Group Co. Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Monalisa”), one of those who had received a warning letter, filed a lawsuit against Gmedia before Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court, requesting non-infringement affirmation, and listed Tencent as third party in this case. After study, Tencent believed the patent at issue had been disclosed by the prior art and doesn’t possess any novelty and creativity, hence applied for invalidation of the patent on July 14, 2016. After review, the Patent Reexamination Board issued No. 30662 Invalidation Decision on November 28, 2016, holding that claims 1-6 of the patent at issue do not possess inventiveness as compared to Reference Document 3 (US 20090255992 A1, hereinafter referred to as “D3”) and combined with common knowledge, thus do not comply with the provisions of Article 22 (3) of the Patent Law. In disagreement, Gmedia started the administrative litigation Patent Reexamination Board with Tencent listed as the third party.

The court judgement is expected to be issued shortly. We will keep our readers posted.

Bürkert Contromatic (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shanghai Burkert") is a WFOE established by a German corporation in China and enjoys renowned reputation in the field of valves, related sensors and controllers. Through license, it has the right to use marks in China. Wuxi Baodi Fluid Control System Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Wuxi Baodi") was a younger company in direct competition with Shanghai Burkert.

Jumpcan Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jumpcan"), a customer of Shanghai Burkert, asked a salesperson of Shanghai Burkert for authentication of the diaphragm valves supplied by others. After verification, the salesperson replied in writing that the products in the pictures presented by Jumpcan are not from and have nothing to do with Shanghai Burkert, and marked the two pictures respectively as “fake BURKERT product” and “Wuxi Baodi’s Bürkert product”. Based on this authentication, Jumpcan demanded the supplier to replace the products with the products made by another company.

This however triggered Wuxi Baodi to sue Shanghai Burkert for commercial defamation, requiring Shanghai Burkert to stop the acts of defaming Wuxi Baodi’s reputation, to make open apology on national news media to eliminate the impact, and to make monetary compensation.

Upon entrustment by Shanghai Burkert, Unitalen applied to the court for listing Jumpcan as the third party, and requested the sales person of Shanghai Burkert to appear in court as witness. After two hearings, Wuxi Intermediate Court accepted our argument and rejected all claims made by Wuxi Baodi. Wuxi Baodi appealed to Jiangsu Higher People’s Court who upheld all our grounds of defense and the first-instance judgement.

Earlier this year, we reported the victory of our client Maco in a trademark infringement case, wherein Beijing IP Court made a ruling of 10-million-yuan indemnity, the highest amount for trademark infringement case ever since the establishment of the court. Recently, Beijing Higher People’s Court made the 2nd instance judgement, affirming Beijing Xiujie’s acts of using “墙锢” (QIANGGU) trademark on “concrete interface treatment agent” products had infringed on Maco’s trademark right. Adopting the approach of determining the indemnity based on infringer’s illegal profit as requested by Unitalen, and taking into consideration of the situation of the alleged infringement activities, the malicious intent of the infringer and other factors, the second instance judgment ordered Beijing Xiuyue pay MACO 6 million yuan for economic loss and reasonable costs.

For more details on this case of the first instance, please visit our website:

http://www.unitalen.com/html/report/17050002-1.htm

December 13, 2017, the 19th China Patent Awards result was announced by SIPO. In accordance with "China patent award evaluation method", a total of 20 gold medal patents, 5 gold medal design patents, 804 excellent patents, and 68 excellent design patents were awarded.

Among all the winning patents, 627 are enterprise patents, accounting for 81.90%, 96 are college patents, accounting for 12.55%, and 42 are individual patents, accounting for only 5.49%.

In terms of overseas mapping, 80% of the awarded patents do not yet have the same family patent overseas. Only 40 awarded patents have had the PCT patent applications filed, but not yet granted overseas, accounting for 4.7% of the total; 138 patents have been granted in at least one country, accounting for 16.22%.

In terms of awarded patent agencies, with 22 awarded invention and utility model patents, Unitalen takes a leading position and doubles the amount of awarded patents of the runner up.

More worth mentioning is that the No. 1 Gold Medal patent [ZL03139760.3 – Benzamide kind histon deacetylase inhibiting agent having differentiation and antiproliferative], was once requested for invalidation. The patent, represented by Unitalen, was successfully maintained in the end.

November 8, 2017 Global IP Ecology Conference (GIPC) jointly hosted by IPRdaily and Capital IP Services Association was held in Beijing Asia Hotel, attracting over 300 IP advantageous enterprises and more than 800 corporate IP counsels and industry elites from 15 countries / regions. With solid and comprehensive strength, Unitalen was awarded "Top 10 IPR China Trademark Agentcy in 2017" and "Top 10 IPR China Patent Agency in 2017".