History

Established on April 5th, 1985, the Patent Reexamination and Invalidation Department(PRD) was originally named as the Patent Reexamination Board of China Patent Office. Then, in 1998, it was named as the Patent Reexamination Board of China Patent Office of SIPO. Ever Since 2001, it has been named as the Patent Reexamination Board of SIPO. At the end of 2003, it was officially approved as an independent legal entity subordinated to SIPO. In 2019, during the restructuring of IP institutions, it became an internal department of the Patent Office, China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), named as Patent Reexamination and Invalidation Department.

Main Responsibilities

To examine requests for reviewing CNIPA’s decision rejecting patent application or registration application of layout-design of integrated circuits; 

To examine requests for invalidating the patent right or for revoking the exclusive right of layout-design of integrated circuits;

To appeal in court where CNIPA is sued against the decisions from the Patent Reexamination and Invalidation Department;

To research on right validation and infringement determination of patent and layout-design of integrated circuits;

To provide consultation on right validation and infringement determination of patent, upon the commission of the People’s Court and the Patent Administration department.

Organization

At present, the Patent Reexamination and Invalidation Department is supervised by one director general, 3 deputy directors general. It consists of 30 divisions, the organizational chart of which is shown as follows. 

2022-PATENT REEXAMINATION AND INVALIDATION DEPARTMENT OF THE PATENT OFFICE,CNIPA.pdf