The Patent Law was first promulgated
in 1984 and was amended twice thereafter. The third round of
amendments to the patent law was submitted to the Standing
Committee of the National People's Congress on 25 August
2008.
The proposed amendments cover issues ranging from the
registration of design patents to administrative and civil court
enforcement actions. However, the two changes most important for
foreign companies concern the "first filing rule" and
provisions on prior art.
The current patent law stipulates
that Chinese entities (which include foreign invested companies)
shall file a PRC-made invention with the State Intellectual
Property Office ("SIPO") first, before registering the
same overseas. Since this rule does not provide for any penalties,
foreign invested companies often transferred their rights in
inventions to their (foreign) parent companies. Initially, it
appeared that the PRC government wanted to strengthen the current
provisions in the patent
