After years of development, China's patent administrative enforcement has made remarkable achievement, holding up the blue sky for the nation's intellectual property industry. From January to December of 2013, the national patent administrative enforcement cases totalled 16,227, up 79.9% year on year, including 5,056 patent dispute cases (4684 of which were patent infringement dispute cases), up 101.4% year on year; and 11,171 investigating counterfeit patent cases, up 71.5% year on year.

"While becoming more and more innovative, Chinese companies are more and more aware of and demanding for IP protection." As to the reason of the increasing number of the patent administrative enforcement case, an official from the Patent Administration Department of the State Intellectual Property Office explained.

In 2013, among the 4,684 patent infringement cases, 362 were foreign related cases, accounting for 7.7%, slightly increased compared to the 90 (4.0%) cases of 2012 (see Chart 1). "China's intellectual property system protects the legitimate rights and interests of both domestic and foreign right holder. Overall, the majority of patent infringement dispute claimants are domestic, whilst foreign patent holders increasingly try to maintain their rights through more convenient and efficient administrative methods." said the official.

Among the 5,056 patent disputes cases recieved in 2013, 562 regard to invention patent, accounting for 11.1%; utility model patent cases are 1,665, accounting for 32.9%; design patent cases are 2,829 , accounting for 56.0% ( see Chart 2). "From the structure of the patent type, Chinese patent disputes are dominated by utility model and design patent cases. The structure is relatively associated with the granting structure of those three types of patents. Besides, being more convenient and efficient, administrative way suits better for design and utility model patent dispute cases." said the official.

"Intellectual property system patent administrative enforcement has made great achievements, but there is still room to improve considering the needs of patent protection from the main bodies of market and innovation." The official said, to combat malicious infringement, group infringement, repeated infringement and acts of counterfeiting patents, is an important duty of the government. It can be predicted, that with the patent protection legal system is becoming more adequate, the main bodies of the market and innovation have been building stronger confidence on patent protection, and the quality of patent granting will continue to be improved.

(China IP News)