The Greater China IP Updates ¡V September 2023

By Lyndon 

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China Issues First Regulation Covering Supervision and Administration of Private Equity Funds

The new regulation for Private Equity Funds (PE) will come into effect in September this year.  The regulation delineates the bottom line of supervision to control risks from the outset.  Differentiated supervision will be adopted according to fund managers’ business type, asset management scale, compliance, risk control and capability to serve investors, according to the explanation provided by the China Securities Regulatory Commission.  By allowing for industry recognition and meeting expectations based on supervisory history over the past few years, the new regulation will serve as a fundamental mechanism to complete comprehensive supervision over China’s PE industry, said the CSRC.  Based on the new regulation, the CSRC will further optimize its management of PE funds’ fundraising, investment, capital operations and information disclosure practices.  The new regulation provides detailed measures throughout the PE lifecycle of fundraising, investment, management and exit.  There will also be strict punishment for violations such as misappropriation and misuse of capital.  The intention is that the PE industry should serve the real economy and promote technological innovation.  Private investment funds in the form of contracts, corporations and partnerships are all subject to the new regulation.  One expectation is that this will be a big stimulus to R&D and the ongoing production of commercially viable patents. 
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CNIPA Releases Annual Report for 2022

The China National Intellectual Property Administration released its annual report on June 5, 2023.  For the year 2022, the number of invention patent applications rose 2.1% (year on year) to 1,619,000, and the number filed by international applicants fell 2% to 155,000.  The number of utility model applications rose 3.5% to 2,951,000.  The number of design applications fell 1.4% to 795,000.  The accuracy rate of invention patent examination was 93.4%.  The number of invention patents granted rose 14.7% to 798,000, and the number filed by international applicants was 102,000, which was 12.9% of the total.  The number of utility models granted fell significantly by 10.1% to 2,804,000.  The number of designs granted fell 8.2% to 721,000.  The number of invention patents owned by international assignees was 861,000, which was 20.4% of the total valid and granted patents.  The number of high-value patents granted to every 10,000 population was 9.4, which was an increase of 1.9%. In total, by the end of 2022, China had more than 4,212,000 valid invention patents.  Also, the pendency of invention patent examination was down to 16.5 months, and the pendency for high value patents was only 13 months.  In terms of which international enterprises were assigned the most patents, Samsung was first with 1785, Toyota were second with 1729, Qualcomm were third with 1231, Honda were fourth with 1213, Bosch were fifth with 1199, Mitsubishi were sixth with 1086, LG were seventh with 886, Ford were eighth with 868, Panasonic were ninth with 855, and Canon were 10th with 849.

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China releases Trademark Data for 2022

The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released the data for the trademark sector for 2022 recently.  The number of trademark registration applications fell 20.5% year on year to 7,516,000.  A total of 6,177,000 trademarks were registered in 2022, and the pendency for examining an application for trademark registration was about 4 months.  By the end of 2022, China had a total of 42,672,000 valid trademark registrations.  Also, the number of requests for trademark opposition fell 17.2% to 146,000, and the pendency of trademark opposition was about 11 months.  More recently, for the first half of 2023, the number of Chinese trademark authorizations dropped just over 45% to 2,018,119 trademarks granted compared to the first half of 2022.  The number of foreign-originated trademark grants also dropped 38% from 98,650 to 60,776 in the same time period.  CNIPA did not provide any specific reasons for the drop in trademarks being granted but one particularly glaring factor was the crackdown on malicious trademark applications, a slowing down of the economy, and the sudden end in lockdowns which resulted in a wave of Covid-19 infections and the ensuing disruptions to the workplace.

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