On the morning of March 13, Yin Xintian, Director of SIPO Legal Affairs Department has an online discussion with netizens via SIPO website on questions related to the decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Patent Law modification.

Mr. Yin points out that compared with the previous two modifications, the third modification to Patent Law is launched on the basis of earnestly summarizing China's more than 20 years of practical experience of patent work and the further understanding of the essence and goal of China's patent system, which meets the demands of China's development, with the public interests considered.

He stresses that in terms of modification contents, the previous two modifications lay more stress on the implementation of international commitments and maintaining consistency with the international regulations on the basis of learning from and introducing mature international systems; the third modification, however, is based on the needs of China's economic and social development, appealing for implementation of Scientific Outlook on Development and transformation of the mode of economic development. It is also one of the important measures of implementing the China National Compendium on IP Strategy.

Mr. Yin indicates that Patent Law only stipulates the principle regulations on the structures and functions of local IP administrations. The current implementation regulations of Patent Law further clarifies related regulations of Patent Law, stipulating that the departments of patent work administration mentioned in Patent Law refer to the departments for patent administration established by people's governments of various provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, and people's governments of cities with districts that have large amounts of patent administration work and the capacity of handling patent affairs. The modification of Patent Law this time does not change related principle regulations in Patent Law; but in the modification work of the implementation regulations of Patent Law, which is still in process, SIPO proposes to properly adjust the above-mentioned regulations in the implementation regulations according to the realistic demands of China's patent work.

Mr. Yin says that according to Patent Law, various local IP administrations also bear the responsibilities of dealing with cases of patent infringements and investigating and handling patent infringements to protect patent rights. According to the original Patent Law, illegal activities of patent include two categories of imitating other patents and counterfeiting other patents. The modification of Patent Law integrates the two categories into one category of patent imitation and counterfeit with unified administrative penalty. New law-enforcement measures are newly added to deal with patent imitation and counterfeit activities. It clearly stipulates that "When the departments of patent work administration perform their duties of investigation and evidence collection, related parties shall provide assistances and cooperation and shall not reject or obstruct the activities." The definition of patent imitation and counterfeit will be made clear at the soon-coming modification of the implementation measures of Patent Law. He stresses that the law-enforcement measure stipulated in Article 64 of Patent Law is only applicable to the investigation of illegal activities of patent, but not applicable to the handling of disputes of patent infringement.

Many netizens also concern about the Chinese Qualification Examination for Patent Agent in 2009. Mr. Yin notes that the examination this year should be launched according to the modified laws and regulations in order to reflect the changes of the modified Patent Law. He points out that the modified Patent Law will come into effect on October 1, 2009. As a common practice, SIPO holds the Chinese Qualification Examination for Patent Agent on the first weekend of November every year. Thus, candidates of the examination may have shorter time to learn the modified implementation regulations and examination guidance, which will exert negative influence upon their preparation. He says that to resolve the problem, SIPO is planning to postpone the examination to the mid-December of 2009 so that candidates can have more time to prepare.