1. Organizational Setup

Approved by the Office of the Central Organizational Committee in November 2003, the Patent Reexamination Board was switched from a SIPO department to a subordinate unit under SIPO.

2. Reexamination and Cases Resolved

Since 1985, 6,577 requests for re-examination had been received. In 2003 alone, 1,813 re-examination requests were received showing an increase of 852 or 88.6% over the previous year. Of all the above requests, 1,742 were related to invention patents and those against decisions on requests for revocation, accounting for 96.1% of the total in 2003. 64 were related to patent for utility models and those against decisions on requests for revocation, accounting for 3.5% of the total in 2003. Seven cases were related to patent for industrial designs and those against decisions on requests for revocation, accounting for 0.4% of the total in 2003. In 2003, 1,235 re-examination cases were resolved, and by the end of 2003, 1,240 re-examination cases were processing.

3. Invalidation and Cases Resolved

Since 1985, the Patent Re-examination Board has received 10,407 requests for invalidation. In 2003, 1,813 requests for invalidation were received, 61 more than the previous year, representing an increase of 3.4%. Of requests received in 2003: 170 related to invalidation requests for invention patents, accounting for 9.4% of the total; 834 related to invalidation requests for utility models, accounting for 46%; and 809 to industrial designs, making up the remaining 44.6% .In 2003, 1617 cases were resolved. Until the end of 2003, 1,580 requests for invalidation are being processed.

4. Patent Administrative Litigation

Since 1985, due to dissatisfaction with decisions on requests for re-examination or invalidation decisions and other notifications made by the Patent Re-examination Board, 792 cases had been lodged with the Beijing Number One Intermediary People's Court or appealed to the Beijing High People's Court, 115 were against the decisions of reexamination, and 668 were against the decisions on requests for invalidation, 9 were against other notifications. In total, 621 cases were resolved by People's court. In 2003 alone, 342 cases were brought to the Beijing Number One Intermediate People's Court for trial, or appealed to the Beijing High People's Court. Among which 20 were lodged against the re-examination decisions after rejection of invention patent applications or requests for revocation of invention patents, 41 against the decisions on requests for invalidation of invention patents, 2 against the decision of re-examination on rejection of utility model patent, 175 against decisions on requests for invalidation of utility model patents, 100 against the decisions on invalidation request for invalidation of industrial designs, 4 against the other notifications.