The Greater China IP Updates ¡V July 2024

By Lyndon 

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China Continues Patent Subsidies

Although China has declared that patent subsidies will come to an end in 2025, many local jurisdictions are still issuing substantive patent subsidies and rewards for both domestic and foreign patent grants.  According to a 2021 USPTO report, China has reportedly adopted more than 70 trademark subsidy measures, including measures for domestic and foreign applications and registrations.  For example the Implementation Rules for the Management of Special Funds for Intellectual Property Rights in Haining City state that patentees will receive an award of 100,000 RMB for every 10 granted Chinese invention patents.  For each foreign patent granted through the Patent Cooperation Treaty, patentees will receive 30,000 RMB in subsidies.  Even if China ends these kinds of subsidies in 2025, China will still be able to use other incentives such as lower corporate income tax rates amongst other means.

Interim Provisions on Anti-Unfair Competition on the Internet Issued by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation

China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) announced the Interim Provisions on Anti-Unfair Competition (AUCL) on the Internet on May 6, 2024.  The new provisions clarify how the AUCL applies to the internet, covering such aspects as data scraping (that has implications for collecting training data for AI), fabricated reviews, and also intellectual property issues.  Article 6 states that platform operators shall strengthen the standardized management of competition within the platform.  If an operator on the platform is found to have adopted unfair competition methods, illegally sold goods or provided services, or infringed upon the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, necessary measures shall be taken.  Article 7 states that operators shall not use the internet to carry out confusing behaviors, leading people to think that they own the rights to other people’s services or goods, such as the following:

1. Unauthorized use of logos that are identical or similar to the main part of domain names, website names, and web pages.
2. Unauthorized use of other people’s product names, business names (including abbreviations, trade names etc.), social organization names, names (including pen names, stage names, and translated names) that have an influence as the main part of domain names and other online business activities.
3. Unauthorized use of logos that are identical or similar to the page design, name, icon, shape etc. of application software, online stores, clients, mini programs, public accounts, game interfaces etc. that have a certain influence on others.
4. Unauthorized use of other people’s network abbreviations, network symbols, and other identifiers that have a certain influence.
5. Producing and selling goods that can lead people to mistake them for others or have a specific connection with others.
6. Conduct confusing behaviors with other operators by providing online business premises and other convenient conditions.