CNIPA: Cracking Down On "low-quality" Patent & Trade Mark Applications

Recently, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued a notice on improvements made based on feedback from the 5^th round of disciplinary inspections by the 19^th Central Committee, which were carried out from May to July 2020. Rectifying measures made by the CNIPA can be summarised below:

1. Speeding up examination periods for patent and trade mark applications. Examination periods for high-value invention patents have been reduced to 14 months, while overall examination periods for invention patents have been reduced to 20 months. Average examination periods for trade mark registration were shortened to 4 months, less than half of its initial duration in the 13^th Five Year Plan.