"In order to further protect the legitimate rights and interests of patentees, encourage invention and creation, and promote the implementation and application of patents, a draft revision of the Patent Law is submitted for review." "In order to further standardize patent agency behavior and ensure The legitimate rights and interests of clients, patent agencies and patent agents, maintaining the normal order of patent agencies, promoting the healthy development of the patent agency industry, and revising the "Patent Agency Regulations"."
On March 20, with the approval of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, the "State Council 2017 Legislative Work Plan" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan") was officially released, and the draft revision of the Patent Law and the revision of the Patent Agency Regulations were submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for review. Include the projects in the "Plan" and strive to complete them within the year.
"The revision of the Patent Law, which has attracted much attention, was listed as a preparatory project in the Legislative Work Plan of the State Council last year. This year, it was included in the "Patent Agency Regulations" together with the revision of the "Patent Agency Regulations" "Plan" strives to complete the projects within the year, and the revision of patent laws and regulations continues to advance at the national level, which reflects the great importance attached by the Party Central Committee and the State Council to the construction of the patent system and embodies the eager expectations of innovative entities and the public." University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Law The director of the Department of Intellectual Property said that amending the Patent Law and the "Patent Agency Regulations" is not only a need to speed up the construction of an intellectual property power, but also to give full play to the role of patents, promote the development of "mass entrepreneurship and innovation", and use patents to support the steady and healthy economic development and opening up to the outside world. needs.
1. Responding to the concerns of innovative entities
"In Qingdao City Knowledge Under the mediation of the Intellectual Property Office, the patent infringement problems we encountered were quickly resolved, which played an important role in the company's "going global" strategy. We very much hope that through the revision of patent laws and regulations, we will increase the intensity of patent administrative enforcement and benefit more companies. "As the person in charge of Qingdao Optoelectronics Medical Technology Co., Ltd. called for, the whole society has a unanimous voice to strengthen patent administrative enforcement and revise and improve patent laws and regulations.
In recent years, with the rapid development of my country's economy and society, strengthening intellectual property protection and improving independent innovation capabilities have become the key to accelerating the transformation of economic development methods and implementing innovation-driven development strategies. internal requirements. At the same time, with the development of science and technology and intensified market competition, new developments in the field of patent protection haveProblems and new contradictions continue to emerge, and patent infringement is relatively common, especially group infringement and repeated infringement are more serious. Coupled with the intangibility of patent rights and the concealment of infringement, it is difficult to prove patent rights, the cycle is long, and the cost is high. , low compensation, and poor results have put some innovative enterprises in our country in a difficult situation. In 2014, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress carried out an inspection of patent law enforcement and also pointed out outstanding problems in the implementation of the patent law.
In order to implement the spirit of relevant documents of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, solve outstanding problems in patent protection and application, effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of patentees, and enhance the awareness of patents by innovative entities, To fully stimulate the innovation vitality of the whole society, it is necessary to carry out the fourth comprehensive revision of the Patent Law from aspects such as improving patent quality, increasing law enforcement, strengthening patent protection, and promoting patent utilization.
Preparatory work for a new round of comprehensive revision of the Patent Law was officially launched in the second half of 2014 based on previous related work. To this end, the State Intellectual Property Office carried out a series of research and demonstration work. After soliciting public opinions on the draft revision of the Patent Law (draft for comments) in April 2015, a revised draft (draft for review) was formed and submitted to the public in July 2015. State Council review. In December 2015, the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council released a revised draft of the Patent Law (draft for review) for public comment.
At the same time, since the "Patent Agency Regulations" came into effect on April 1, 1991, the patent agency industry has developed rapidly. As of the end of 2016, the State Intellectual Property Office had approved the establishment of 1,511 patent agencies, of which 269 were newly established in 2016, accounting for 150% of the new agencies in 2015. There are 14,875 practicing patent agents, and the number has grown steadily by more than 2,000 per year in the past two years. This new situation of rapid development also requires the revision of the Patent Agency Regulations to regulate the healthy development of the industry.
"Whether it is the revision of the Patent Law, the revision of the "Patent Agency Regulations", or the formulation of the "Service Invention Regulations", the construction of these relevant legal and regulatory systems all affects the whole society. Attention is focused on the country’s innovation and development expectations, so accelerating the revision of patent laws and regulations is a general trend.” said a professor at Beihang University Law School.
2. Supporting economic and social development
In recent years, entrepreneurship and innovation It is developing vigorously. Currently, there are 4,298 maker spaces and more than 3,600 technology business incubators across the country. The enthusiasm for invention and creation in the whole society is high. As a result, my country's invention patents have continued to grow significantly year by year. 2016, my country’s invention patent applications and valid invention patents both exceeded 1 million, and the number of invention patent applications has ranked first in the world for six consecutive years. At the same time, the continuous emergence of new technologies, new business formats, and new models has put forward increasingly urgent demands for advancing the pace of improving patent laws and regulations and strengthening patent protection.
At the same time, under the current new situation of deepening reform, the supervision method of the patent agency industry has also undergone new changes, from the original prior approval to in-process and ex-post approval. Supervision. The content of the current "Patent Agency Regulations" is seriously out of touch with the reality, which to a certain extent has restricted the development of my country's patent agency industry. The revision of the "Patent Agency Regulations" is of great significance for the competent authorities to give full play to their supervisory functions, strictly perform their supervisory duties, assist "mass entrepreneurship and innovation" and meet the rapidly growing demand for patent agency services from innovative entities.
"In recent years, China has launched a new situation of mass entrepreneurship and innovation, which has put forward newer and higher requirements for patent work, and also created new challenges for the revision of patent laws and regulations. It has brought new topics, and it is imperative to conduct the fourth comprehensive revision of the patent law from aspects such as improving patent quality, increasing law enforcement, strengthening patent protection, and promoting patent utilization." The revision and improvement of patent laws and regulations not only include It is conducive to promoting the reform of comprehensive management of intellectual property, implementing the "13th Five-Year Plan" national intellectual property protection and utilization plan, accelerating the construction of an intellectual property power, and also conducive to giving full play to the basic guarantee and important supporting role of the intellectual property system in innovation-driven development.
"The reason why the revision of patent laws and regulations has attracted the attention of the whole society is because the role of patent work in today's economic and social development has become increasingly prominent.", especially in the in-depth In the new era of implementing the innovation-driven development strategy and promoting supply-side structural reform, revising and improving patent laws and regulations has become the common expectation of the whole society.
The above is the latest legislative plan compiled by the editor of the Legal Savior Network for you. The revision of these laws is closely related to us and is also in order to deal with the emerging problems. Regarding the revisions made, if you are interested in this aspect and want to know further developments, you can follow our latest developments on the Legal Savior website. We will update them as soon as possible. Of course, you can also seek legal consultation if you don’t understand.
