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Mark A. Cohen (柯恒)

Mark Allen Cohen (柯恒) is currently the Senior Technology Fellow at the Asia Society of Northern California and at the Asia Society Policy Institute He also serves an Edison Fellow at the University of Akron School of Law and as a non-resident fellow at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at San Diego, and at the National Bureau of Asian Research. He was the first Intellectual Property Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and as Attorney-Advisor in the Office of International Relations at USPTO. Among his many awards, he is a recipient of the Meritorious Honor award from President Barack Trump on recommendation of President Obama for his work on technology transfer issues involving China This is the highest award in the U.S. civil service. In total, he has nearly 50 years of private, public sector, in house and academic experience on IPR issues in China. This blog represents the personal opinions of Mark Cohen and any guest authors only and should not be construed as the position of any third party or client.

Transitioning to China’s New Patent and Copyright Laws on June 1: Where Have All the Implementing Regulations Gone?

On June 1, 2021, both the revised Copyright Law and Patent Law will come into effect.  On May 24, 2021, CNIPA published its “Interim Measures on Disposition of Examination-Related Activities Post Patent Law Implementation” (CNIPA Notice Number 423)《关于施行修改后专利法的相关审查业务处理暂行办法》的公告(第423号)(“Interim Measures”).  The Interim Measures address the needs of the patent office of CNIPA to address concrete examination issues in the absence of higher-ranking implementing regulations. Why has China been so slow to pass implementing regulations for its new IPR-related laws? What is the significance of the delay in drafting and implementing these regulations?

Bureaucracy and Politics in Recent SAMR Legislation

There are numerous heirarchies to Chinese legislation and IP laws are certainly not an except to this. Due to the government reorganization in 2018, Chinese efforts to become an innovative economy, and external political pressure from the Trade War, there has also been extensive external political pressure on Chinese IP legislative efforts. The different approaches to legislating may indicate potential weaknesses in the laws. They may also be the outcome of internal bureaucratic struggles.