USPTO released a study on February 15, 2022 entitled “Patenting Activity among 5G Technology Developers”.
The Report uniquely “examines overall patenting trends as well as trends in patent filings and value indicators in the four most-patented 5G-related technologies. The Report does not fully consider China’s role as a major patent office in evaluating the quality of filings.
IPO Comments on CNIPA Provisions On Patent Application Behavior
The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) published its Revised Draft Provisions Concerning Regulating Patent Application Behavior (Draft for Public Comment) (关于规范申请专利行为的若干规定修改草案[征求意见稿]) on May 6, 2021 (the “Draft Provisions”). The purpose of this […]
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.
The NTE Report On Chinese IP And Its Relationships To Chinese Legal Developments

USTR’s recently released NTE report shows continuing lack of clarity over key Chinese legal terms. The report also declines to discuss commercial rule of law issues raised in last years Special 301 report. What role does commercial rule of law have in the Biden Administration’s trade diplomacy? The answer is unclear.
Recent Research of USPTO
This is the first in a series of blogs on recent research. The USPTO just released its report on Trademarks and Patents in China, The Impact of Non-Market Factors on Filing Trends […]
100 Priority IP Projects for 2020
What does the recently released CNIPA document listing “100 Projects in 2020 to Deeply implement the National Intellectual Property Strategy to Accelerate the Construction of the Intellectual Property Powerful Country Promotion Plan” […]
The Good Faith Elephant in the IP Trade War

It is impossible to talk about structural issues in China’s IP regime and its impact upon foreigners without addressing the lack of a comprehensive approach to “bad faith” activities in all its […]
Trade and Peace on Earth: Part 2

In the first part of this blog, I talked about unilateral steps that the United States and China have been taking during the ‘trade war’ to address concerns regarding forced tech transfer. […]
March 19 – 26, 2018 Updates
1. China Now Number 2 PCT Filer. China has overtaken Japan to claim second place as a source of Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications in 2017. In 2017, U.S.-based applicants numbered 56,624 PCT, […]
Prison Inventions and Patent Subsidies
The South China Morning Post reported recently on jailhouse inventors, a topic that you may have first read about here. According to the SCMP and Beijing Youth Daily, various provinces have different […]