Main Points Of Proposed Amendment (4th) To Chinese Patent Law

China's National People's Congress (NPC) has recently published an updated Draft of Proposed Amendment to Chinese Patent Law. This will be the Fourth (4th) amendment to the patent law and has been discussed for a number of years. The NPC is currently seeking public comments on the Draft.

There are a number of important proposed changes to the law. We have paraphrased and highlighted in blue the key changes below, followed by our comments in black.

Article 2.4 Partial designs will be allowed.
A much welcomed change. It will provide flexibility to the applicants and convenience to applicants from countries that allow partial designs.

Article 6.1 An employer of service-inventions may dispose its rights to applications or patents according to law.