According to the provision of Article 2 of the Transition Rules, for a patent application filed before October 1, 2009 and a patent right granted for the application, the provisions of the old Patent Law shall apply unless otherwise prescribed in the Transition Rules; and for a patent application filed after October 1, 2009 and a patent right granted for the application, the provisions of the revised Patent Law shall apply. That is, for the conditions for patenting, the examination procedure and the possible future invalidation request in connection with a patent application which was accepted before October 1, 2009 but for which a patent right was not yet granted, the provisions of the old Patent Law shall apply in principle. This provision is in compliance with the provision in regard to the Doctrine of Non-Retroactivity of Legislation provided for in Article 84 of the Law on Legislation, and can also secure the lawful rights and interests of patent applicants and patentees.

In order to secure national interests and public interests, Article 3 of the Transition Rules provides for that, for compulsory licensing requested for a patent right granted for a patent application accepted before October 1, 2009, the provisions of the revised Patent Law shall apply.

Regarding the handling of an action which is suspected to involve patent infringement or an action which is suspected to involve passing-off by a local administrative authority for patent affairs, Articles 4 and 5 of the Transition Rules provide for that, if the action occurs after October 1, 2009, the provisions of the revised Patent Law shall apply. This can secure the interests of patentees and the public.

For the convenience of foreign applicants and patentees filing applications for patents and handling other patent affairs in China, and also for establishing a fair competition environment for patent agents, Article 7 of the Transition Rules explicitly provides for that, where a foreign applicant or patentee appoints a patent agency or changes the appointment after October 1, 2009, the provisions of Article 19 of the revised Patent Law shall apply, that is, he/it may appoint any legally set up patent agency, but not necessarily a patent agency designated by the SIPO provided for in Article 19 of the old Patent Law.

Since the statistic data in 2009 are not yet complete, Mr. Gurry did not reveal the specific number of the PCT applications from China in the first half year. However, Mr. Gurry mentioned that the Chinese economy is continuously increasing and enterprises, universities, research organs and so on in China are realizing more and more the benefits brought about by using the PCT system, and all these are the reasons why the number of PCT applications from China is continuously increasing.

In the last year, Chinese enterprises and organs filed a total of 6089 PCT applications, increased by 11.9% than in 2007, ranking the sixth in the world. America (53521), Japan (28774), Germany (18427), South Korean (7908) and France (6867) rank the top five, respectively.

The Chinese government submitted the notice of joining “Madrid Agreement for International Registration of Trade Marks” to WIPO on July 4, 1989. This Agreement came into effect in China on October 4, 1989.

In addition, OSRAM gave particular appreciation to Yi Wu Customs, who seized 2998 fluorescent lamps infringing the trademark right of OSRAM from the containers exported by a local trading company in Raohe County to Malaysia in last August.

The “Opinions” also gave same tentative stipulations concerning the enhancement of judicial protection of IP and the promotion of IP trial system reform. It stresses that people’s procuratorate should cooperate with the authorized local courts in the reform of unified trials of IP related civil cases, criminal cases and administrative cases, and thoroughly perform the functions of public prosecution and trail supervision in IP criminal cases.

According to reports, the newly established Shanghai IP Exchange Center will become one of the most important parts of the IP pledge financing system in Shanghai, featuring three major functions: 1) taking part in the initial evaluation of target IP rights, recording target IP rights and analyzing potential transfer possibility; 2) transferring IP rights on public exchange platform when the pledged IP rights are withdrawn from the market; and 3) transferring IP rights in various forms including bidding and auction. The establishment of the IP exchange system helps to give market support to the initial pricing and withdrawal operation for IP pledge financing.

The Court expressed that the above case is the first IP criminal case relating to Shanghai Expo. The judgment was made in conformity with the legal provisions and will be helpful in maintaining the order of Shanghai Expo construction.

BMW's trademark ‘BMW’, Giorgio Armani's trademarks ‘armani’, ‘giorgio armani’ and ‘emporio armani’ and UPS’s UPS series marks enjoy very high reputation worldwide, which incur preemptive domain name “hi-jacking” by ill-will third parties.

Since 2008, Unitalen, acting on behalf of BMW AG, has won disputes against domain names ‘bmw-bmw.com’, ‘bmw-bmw.cn’ and ‘bmw-bmw.com.cn’. On behalf of Giorgio Armani Corporation, Unitalen has succeeded in retrieving domain names ‘emporioarmaniwatches.com.cn’, ‘emporioarmaniwatches.cn’, ‘armaniexchange.net.cn’, ‘armaniexchange.org.cn’ and ‘giorgioarmanibeauty.cn’. Unitalen also assisted UPS to get their domain names “upsdeliverylink.cn”, “upsracing.cn”, “upsworldship.cn, “upsource.cn” back as outcome of a single domain complaint. These successes help maintain the good-will of these worldwide well-known brands.

In addition, Unitalen has also assisted in recovering many other domain names through complaint proceedings, including ‘alainafflelou.com.cn’ and ‘alainafflelou.cn’ for Alain Afflelou Franchiseur, and ‘frangelico.cn’ and ‘frangelico.com.cn’ for C & C International Limited.

The successes of these domain name disputes not only safeguarded the clients’ lawful interests, but also helped curb the domain name “hi-jacking” activities. In so doing, Unitalen has shown its outstanding ability in domain name protection.