Further to my blog earlier this month, attached are unofficial translations of the draft Patent Law Amendments, as well as the SIPO Explanations about Draft Amendment to the Patent Law.  Comments on the draft are due at the State Council Legislative Affairs Office by January 1.  The drafts are provided by the USPTO office in Beijing, should be compared against the Chinese original for any important concerns.

This draft may generally be said to elicit several different types of concerns. These include positive changes from the earlier draft in areas of concern.  An example of this might be limitations on proposed enhancement of patent administrative enforcement.  Another area of concern is negative changes from the earlier draft.  An example of this might be inclusion of antimonopoly law concepts regarding IP abuse into the patent law amendments. Another type of amendment is a positive change in an already positive direction.   An example of this might be improvements in civil enforcement and conduct of utility model appraisal reports.  Finally, there are issues that are not under consideration for revision in the patent law, which might be useful for Chinese law makes to consider.  Examples of these might include a more robust and longer grace period, and a longer statute of limitations.  There are also issues involving pharmaceutical regulatory procedures and patent protection that also implicate pharmaceutical regulatory procedures, such as patent linkage or patent term restoration which affected companies may wish to comment on.

Also importantly, the State Council Legislative Affairs Office website describes this draft as a SIPO draft , not an SCLAO draft to support further research by the State Council: “The Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council decided to publish the State Intellectual Property Office submission for consideration by the State Council of The Chinese Patent Law Amendment Bill (draft) and its Explanation, in order to solicit views of all sectors of society to conduct further research, and after modification to submit for consideration by the State Council.” “国务院法制办公室决定，将国家知识产权局报请国务院审议的《中华人民共和国专利法修订草案（送审稿）》（以下简称送审稿）及其说明公布，征求社会各界意见，以便进一步研究、修改后报请国务院审议。”

Also for reference, attached is the link to a translation of the prior draft, and comments of the ABA on that prior draft.