July 2019: Understanding the Unique Features of China’s Rapidly Expanding Patent System -
China is probably now the third most important (after the United States and Germany) venue for patent prosecution and enforcement, and it is critical for companies doing business there to understand how the system works. Patent applications in China have exploded in recent years. In 2018, approximately 1.54 million patent applications were filed with the recently renamed and restructured China National Intellectual Property Administration (“CNIPA”), formerly the State Intellectual Property Office. This was a year-over-year increase of 11.6%, and was by far the most applications filed in any country in the world. The United States Patent and Trademark Office, by comparison, received approximately 640,000 applications in 2018. And while the number of patent applications has remained relatively steady in the United States in recent years, China has seen a 50% increase in just the last four years.
A significant increase in patent litigation in China has followed. Civil patent lawsuit filings in China increased 30% between 2016 and 2017 to over 16,000, exceeding United States patent lawsuits by fourfold. And while Chinese patents themselves share many similarities with their U.S. counterparts, the patent litigation systems have a number of important differences.
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