From SIPO’s 2017 Statistical Report (see last entry below).

1.  Intellectual property issues discussed during China’s “two sessions” – the annual meetings of the national legislature (The National People’s Congress) and the top political advisory body (the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference). In addition to proposals on reorganizations of State agencies, including SIPO and SAIC,  Premier Li Keqiang delivered a government’s work report on behalf of the State Council. In this work report, Li Keqiang noted that the total number of in-force Chinese invention patents issued in China had tripled, the volume of technology transactions had doubled, and trademark registration cycle had been significantly shortened. In addition, Li set out the agenda for the government in 2018, and one of the items on this agenda is to strengthen intellectual property protection and enforce a punitive compensation system for intellectual property rights infringements.

The Chief Justice Zhou Qiang (周强) also delivered the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) work report. Zhou emphasized again the role of judicial protection of IP rights. This report often provides a hint of the more detailed IPR White Papers that the SPC publishes around IP Week in April.

Wan Gang (万钢), minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology, also addressed IP related issues during a press conference. A more detailed report on that is forthcoming.

A number of NPC delegates also made proposals regarding IP issues. Many of these are unlikely to be enacted into law. For instance, a delegate from Royalstar (荣事达) proposes using Chinese character as one of the basic requirements in trademark registration; a delegate from Su Ning urges IP protection/clarification for live broadcasts of sporting events (see my blogs on the ongoing debate over copyright protection for sports broadcasts); and a delegate from Nanjing Normal University urges stronger protection for Internet service platform, a topic which is long overdue for reform.

2.  Huawei tops European patent applications Huawei ranked the first in patent applications in 2017 on the European Patent Office patent-filing list, the office said in its latest reporting. With 2,398 patent applications in 2017, Huawei became the first Chinese firm that tops the EPO ranking in the office’s history, followed by Siemens with 2,220 and LG with 2,056.

3.  CAS plans patent auctions  The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) will hold a patent auction for the first time, involving a a portfolio of 932 patents. The patents were selected from those obtained by 104 institutes and 89 national labs affiliated with the academy, and cover a wide spectrum of fields, including new materials, intelligent manufacturing, advanced biomedical technology, new energy and ecological environmental technology. The 932 patents are a small subset of CAS’ patent holdings in China of approximately 46,000. According to An Lili from CAS’s intellectual property center, the minimum starting bid for the patents is expected to be 100,000 yuan (15,700 U.S. dollars). The Intellectual Property Operation and Management Center of CAS is promoting the patents in the coastal provinces of Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang as well as the cities of Shanghai, Fuzhou and Shenzhen, where auctions will be held in March.

4.  SIPO releases basic statistics of patent application in 2017  As detailed in this collection of tables (Chinese language), the United States was the second largest foreign filer at SIPO, after Japan (about 41,000 to 37,000 applications — see chart above).   State Grid was the largest Chinese invention patent grantee, with about 3,622 patents, ahead of Huawei (3,293).  Among foreign filers, the United States had four companies in the top 10: Qualcomm (no 1), Intel (7), IBM (8) and General Motors (10). Huawei was the single biggest Chinese user of the PCT system. The report also provides snapshots of One Belt One Road filings. China’s top two filing destinations were India and Russia, while China’s top two foreign filers in the OBOR were Singapore and Israel.