In 2006, local IP Administrations in China accepted a total of 1,270 cases involving patent infringement and other patent disputes, and closed 973 cases of them., aAmong them 1,227 are were patent infringement cases and 952 of them are closed,. They accepted and 43 cases involving other patent dispute and wound up 21 of them closed., investigated and disposed of 33 cases of patent counterfeit and 933 cases of false patent were investigated and disposed. A total of 20,475 law-enforcement persons/times were dispatched,  to have 7,780 business sites inspected and 2,968,249 pieces of goods checked. They submitted 12 cases to the local public security department for disposal, accepted 35 cases from other departments and launched 469 times of law-enforcement in cooperation with other departments.

 

Seven characteristics in the data of China's administrative law-enforcement in 2006

1.  Patent infringement cases made up the lion's share of patent dispute cases. In 2006 a total of 1,270 patent dispute cases were accepted throughout the country, among which 1,227 were patent infringement cases, accounting for 96.6%, and 43 were other patent dispute cases, or 3.4%.

2.  Utility model and design patent cases made up the major part of the patent infringement cases. Among the 1,227 patent infringement cases accepted during the Jan.-Dec. period there were 200 invention patent cases, accounting for 16.3% of the total, 459 utility model patent cases, or 37.4%, and 568 design patent cases, or 46.3%.

3.  Applicants of patent infringement cases were mainly domestic people, and such cases involving foreign parties held a small percentage. Among the 1,227 patent infringement cases, 92 were filed by applicants from abroad, accounting for 7.5%, 1,050 cases by patentees from China's mainland, or 85.6%, 79 cases by patentees from Hong Kong, China, or 6.4%, and 6 cases by patentees from Taiwan, China, or 0.5%.

4.  Cases of other patent dispute  mainly involved ownership, reward and remuneration disputes. Among the total of 43 other patent cases accepted from January to December, 29 were cases involving patent application and patent proprietorship, accounting for 67.4%, 9 cases concerning service invention, reward and remuneration for inventors and designers, or 20.9%, and 2 cases concerning qualifications of inventors and designers, or 4.7%, and 3 cases of other types, or 7.0%.   

5.  The number of patent counterfeit cases was small, and their patentees were mostly from China's mainland. The larger part of the patents was design patent. Among the 33 such cases investigated and handled across the country from January to December the patentees of 31 cases were from the Chinese mainland, 1 from Japan and the other from Hong Kong of which 23 were design patents, 6 invention patents and 4 utility models. Among patent counterfeit cases investigated and handled from January to December, 58,726 commodities were involved, valued at 181,148.00 RMB in total, and related fines amounted to 39,000.00 RMB.   

6.  The amount involved in false patent cases was large. Among the 933 cases investigated and handled nationwide from January to December, 488,897 pieces of goods were involved, totaling RMB12,579,871.80, and related fines amounted to RMB766,800.00.
　
7.  The nationwide system of SIPO has further intensified law-enforcement, to be exact, a total of 20,475 persons/times were sent, having business sites inspected 7,780 times and 2,968,249 pieces of goods checked. At the same time, greater efforts were made on trans-departmental and trans-regional law-enforcement, with 12 cases submitted to local public security organs, and 32 cases to other departments. They also accepted 35 cases from other departments and conducted law-enforcement 469 times jointly with other departments. Local IP Administrations launched 129 and 32 times within and cross provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities respectively.

 

2007-03-29

2007-03-29