1. On April 21, 2025, the Supreme Court released “Abstract of the Annual Report on the Application of Law in Intellectual Property Cases by Chinese Courts (2024)”. << The report includes 47 litigation cases covering patent, trademark, copyright, competition, trade secret, etc. Wherein, the case No. (2024) ZGFMZ 244 highlights that in patent infringement cases, a patent evaluation report may serve as one of evidences for adjudicating the case, however, the validity of the involved patent should still be determined based on the granted patent text and the effective decision of the administrative department. When a patentee initiates an infringement lawsuit based on a valid patent, the patentee’s right to exercise the litigation claim cannot be denied merely because the patent evaluation report concludes that the involved patent does not meet the patentable requirements. >> <<
2. On April 21, 2025, the Supreme Court issued the annual report of the Intellectual Property Protection by Chinese Courts in 2024. << According to the report, Chinese courts across the nation accepted 529,370 various types of IP cases in 2024, including first-instance, second-instance, and applications for retrial. In 2024, Chinese courts across the nation received 8,252 new foreign-related first instance IP cases. In 2024, Chinese courts across the nation applied punitive damages in 460 intellectual property civil infringement cases, a year-on-year increase of 44.2%. Courts across the nation also accepted 9,120 first-instance criminal cases of IP infringement and concluded 9,003 such cases, an increase of 24.34% and 29.22% respectively, compared to 2023. >> <<
3. On April 24, 2025, the Supreme Court and the Supreme Procuratorate jointly released the "Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Intellectual Property Infringement" and typical cases of criminal legal protection of intellectual property rights. << The Interpretation adheres to the principle of strict protection in accordance with the law, lowers the threshold for criminalization, increases the circumstances of criminalization, stipulates provisions for heavier punishment, and raises the upper limit of fines.>> <<
https://www.spp.gov.cn/xwfbh/wsfbt/202504/t20250424_693977.shtml >>
4. On April 26, 2025, the Supreme Court released the Annual Report of the Intellectual Property Tribunal (2024). << According to the Report, In 2024, the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme Court accepted a total of 6,229 cases involving technical intellectual property and monopoly (including 3,015 newly accepted cases) and concluded 4,213 cases. The average trial period per case was about 254 calendar days (approximately 8.5 months). Over the past six years, the average annual growth rate of newly accepted foreign-related intellectual property cases was 23.2%. Specifically, in 2024, the tribunal newly accepted 437 foreign-related cases (accounting for 14.5% of all newly accepted cases) and concluded 373 cases. The Supreme Court also mentioned an infringement case between a Denmark company (patentee) and two Chinese companies, wherein the Supreme Court supported the patentee’s compensation claim in the amount of over 23 million RMB. >> <<
5. On April 30, 2025, the CNIPA published its proposed changes to Guidelines for Patent Examination (2023) for public comments. << The proposed changes include: 1) Where, for one invention, the same applicant files both a utility model patent application and an invention patent application with the CNIPA on the same day, and makes declaration in the Request Forms respectively, if the invention application is found allowable but there is double-patenting issue with the earlier granted utility model patent, the applicant shall abandon the active utility model patent. 2) Request for invalidation of Chinese patent that was not made with the true intention of the requester shall not be accepted. 3) Add guidelines for examination of AI related patent applications. 4) Add regulations on the examination of patent applications related to bitstreams >> <<
https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/art/2025/4/30/art_75_199472.html >>
6. On March 13, 2025, the State Council of the People's Republic of China issued “Regulations of the State Council on the Resolving Foreign-Related Intellectual Property Disputes”, which came into force from May 1, 2025. << The Regulation aims to introduce more specific administrative measures in relation to foreign related intellectual property disputes, wherein Articles 15 to 17 of the Regulation are to provide remedies for discriminatory restrictive measures regarding intellectual property that Chinese citizens or entities might face abroad. Specifically, these Articles stipulate countermeasures against such discriminatory restrictions. >> <<
https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/202503/content_7014486.htm >>
7. Important Reminder for Chinese Design Patent Application: After a design patent application was filed, the applicant has only one chance to voluntarily amend the design application, i.e. within two months from filling date. Through the voluntary amendment, the applicant can change the solid lines into dashed lines or change the dashed lines into solid lines. After receiving an office action, the applicant normally cannot change the solid lines into dashed lines or change the dashed lines into solid lines except for overcoming the defect pointed out by the examiner, because such changes may be considered going beyond the original scope.