Category Archives: Statistics

by

“Case Filing” In China’s Courts and Their Impact on IP Cases

“Case Filing” In China’s Courts and Their Impact on IP Cases

In my experience over the past decade and talking to local IP courts in China, the IPR judges have for the most part been very forthcoming, knowledgeable and engaging.  However, their colleagues in the Case Filing Division (立案庭) (“CFD”) have operated in a much more opaque way, typically not willing to meet at all, despite their playing a critical role in certain WTO / TRIPS obligations of China, such as granting/denying preliminary injunctions, preliminary evidence or asset preservation measures (“provisional measures”)(TRIPS Art. 50).  The CFD of a court is more than a court clerk or docketing officer, the CFD actually operates to accept or deny cases, typically without handing down written decisions of any kind. Continue reading →

by

The Other Chinese Patent Development: China’s Autumnal Patent “Hook”

It is 2012, and China’s State Intellectual Property Office (“SIPO”) has once again released its end of the year data on patent filings for the year.  While patent data and scientific citation data suggest that China is on the cusp of becoming an innovative economy, there is another trend that has subsisted for several years:  China’s autumnal upward patent “hook.”

As I have remarked in several conferences during the past two to three years, the data suggests that if patents are a surrogate for innovation activity, one of the most significant factors in China’s innovation efforts are the time of the year:  China innovates in the fall.   February, however, appears to be a slow month for creativity, perhaps due to lack of external pressure (government subsidies, quotas), but also due to the hiatus caused by the lunar new year and the 28 day month. Continue reading →