Hangzhou court makes cutting edge decision in July 2021 in copyright case of u-blox v. Techotop by drawing adverse inferences as to copying based on Defendant’s refusal to produce code to challenge prima facie evidence of infringement, relying on a 2001 Judicial Interpretation.
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?
Public Interest and Private Rights in the Copyright Law Amendments
June 13 is the last day for submitting comments to China’s National People’s Congress on proposed revisions to China’s Copyright Law. In this blog, I discuss draft provisions in the Copyright Law […]
Some China IP Resources While Sheltering in Place
An unofficial translation of the proposed Copyright Law amendments that have been made available for public comment, is available here. Thanks to Prof. Jiarui Liu for sharing his translation! All translations are […]
Draft Copyright Law Up for Public Comment
The National People’s Congress released a draft of the Copyright Law for public comment. Comments are due by June 13, 2020. The NPC comments on the draft are found here. The NPC […]
Essentially Derived Varieties and The Role of Leading Cases in Chinese Plant Variety Protection

Editor’s Note: Plant Variety Protection (PVP) is a little-discussed topic in China’s IP regime. Indeed, this blog has only reported on PVP-specific issues once before, and once in the context of the […]
New CPC and State Council Opinions on Improving IP Protection
On November 24, 2019, the General Office of Communist Party of China and the State Council jointly released the Opinions Concerning Enhancing Intellectual Property Rights Protection (关于强化知识产权保护的意见). It is often too easy […]
Beijing IP Court Rules on Copyright Protection for Sports Broadcasts
According to a recent posting on the Weixin account of IPHouse (结案信息 ┃ 北京知识产权法院审结涉及体育赛事节目的两起著作权侵权纠纷案, March 30, 2018), the Beijing IP Court has now decided the second instance appeals of two cases involving […]
Should the NPC also consider Criminal Copyright Reform when it considers Copyright Reform?

At this month’s National People’s Congress, an NPC spokesman noted that this year the NPC intends to address reform of the copyright law, which has been long delayed. However, reform of the […]
China’s Plan for Copyright Creativity

China’s National Copyright Administration released it plans for the 13th Five Year Plan regarding copyright (the “Plan”), attached here (including machine translation). The plan comes on the back of the State Council’s 13th […]