1. Legislative Affairs

The Office continued preparatory work for the revision of Patent Representation Regulation. After opinion-soliciting nationwide, a relatively matured revision plan had been formulated. The Office also conducted a field study with relevant agencies, streamlined procedures and made necessary preparation for the revision.

In 2004, most legislative work on office-level policies was centered on patent filing and examination, patent agent qualification exam and patent administrative enforcement.

1) Since March 12 2004, the SIPO began receiving patent applications in electronic form via the Internet. In an effort to regulate such applications, the Office issued the Regulation on Electronic Patent Filing (No.35 SIPO Commissioner's Decree).

In order to be compatible with the revision of the Implementing Regulation of the Patent Law and further regulating of preliminary examination, substantive examination, international application into national phase and standard of patent filing and procedure management and improve petition procedure of reexamination and invalidation and determination standard of identical and similar of design, the Office revised the Examination Guideline for the second time.

2) The Office continued improving regulations on the patent agent qualification exam, making the exam more systemized. In 2004, the Implementing Methods on the Patent Agent Qualification Exam (No.36 SIPO Commissioner's Decree), which set out the basic principles for the exam, was promulgated. The Office also issued Administrative Rules for the Exam (No.99 SIPO Notice) with provisions on all the phases of the exam. In an effort to administer confidentiality of the exam, the Office also formulated a series of documents, Confidentiality Rules on Patent Agent Exam and Emergency Plan for Confidentiality Security of the National Patent Agent Qualification Exam.

3) In 2004, the Office proposed the suggestions for the revision of patent administrative enforcement methods, planning to add the cause of action of patent infringement, elevating some effective measures to policy level and revising some rules in the current methods.

In view of the severity of patent infringements in exhibitions, and exhibitions?characteristics of short period which made it hard to comply with regular enforcement procedure, the Office drafted the Methods on the Patent Protection in Exhibitions (opinion-soliciting version) based on the field study in recent years.

In December 2004, the Office held a seminar to solicit opinions and suggestions from local areas. The Office would make further amendments and improvements in the near future.

2. Administration of Patent Representation

1) The year of 2004 was the year for the National Patent Agent Qualification Exam, with over 7,000 people registered and 4,800 attended. The attendance was the highest in recent years. The evaluation was finished in November. The students'scores and the passing standard (total score must be 220+, drafting part must be 55+) were published on the Internet. The passing rate of the current exam was 11% and over 500 examinees passed. The Office would grant certificates of patent agents to the passing examinees.

For further implementation of the State Council's decision on supporting the economic development of Hong Kong and Macao, after consultation with the relevant agencies of Hong Kong and Macao SARs, the Office had an agreement on HK and Macao residents?attendance in the 2004 exam. The Office issued the arrangements of HK and Macao residents?attendance in the exam and integrated it into the CEPA arrangements, making patent representation the first group of service industry open to HK and Macao.

2) Pursuant to the provisions of the Administrative Methods of Patent Representation, the Office conducted the 2004 annual check of patent agencies and agents, checking 561 agencies and 3,700 agents. In the end of November, it issued the first group of 472 agencies passing the check.

3) Pursuant to the Disciplinary Rules of Patent Representation, the Office issued a decision to suspend the representation business of Xinjiang Kelamayi Shensi Patent Agency for six months. The decision was the first such decision since the inauguration of the Rules.

4) In June 2004, the Office approved 55 patent agencies as foreign-related patent agencies and trained them in PCT business.

3. Attention to the Drafting of International Treaty

The jurisdiction issue was an important element of the Hague Convention on International Jurisdiction Selection(Draft), which was drafted by the Hague International Private Law Meeting. The Office was actively involved in the negotiation of the Treaty and held a workshop on it along with Ministry of Foreign Affairs in August 2004. Experts in IP or international private law from the nation's relevant agencies and research institutes gathered to discuss six topics, namely, jurisdiction over cases on IP right validity, over cases of IP infringement, over IP contract, over other IP cases, over foreign-related civil cases with IP right validity as an incidental condition, and over the acceptance and enforcement of foreign-related IP cases. Some consensus was reached.

4. Administrative Reconsideration

In 2004, SIPO received a total of 42 requests for administrative reconsideration, among which 7 were related to patent applications deemed to have been withdrawn, 6 related to termination of patent right, 11 related to patents that could not be restored, 6 related to priority rights deemed not to have been claimed, 1 related to patent right deemed to be given up, 2 related to the modification of the bibliographies, 1 related to deferral fee, 1 related to no refund, 1 related to PCT international application not granted national entry, 1 related to the determination on patent filing date, 1 related to deemed no request for division of application, 2 related to denial of patent application, 1 related to denial of relinquishment of patent right, 1 related to deemed no request for the procedure of suspension. Among the 42 requests for administrative reconsideration, the SIPO modified 17 requests? original administrative decisions, reaffirmed 21 original decisions and 4 requests were pending.

In 2004, 7 administrative litigations were brought against SIPO before the court, among which 1 were related to termination of patent right, 2 related to PCT international application not granted national entry, 1 related to priority deemed not to have been claimed, 1 related to determine the Office's administrative act illegal, 1 related to request for administrative remuneration, 1 related to request for withdrawing the notice of grant. Among the above-mentioned litigation, 4 cases were resolved and 3 were pending.

5. Relevant Affair

In celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Patent Law and publicize the Law, on March 19,2004, the Office jointly with the Education, Science, Culture and Health Committee of the NPC, the Legal Affairs Committee of the NPC Standing Committee and the State Council Legislative Affairs Office held a workshop. The participants recalled the past 20 years of the patent affairs and achievements, discussed the new opportunities, tasks and challenges for China, and provided valuable opinions and suggestions for the further improvement of the patent work.