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Deep & Far Newsletter 2025 ©
Mar (2)
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The Greater China IP Updates ¡V March 2025 By Lyndon ¡@ China Faces the Challenges and Opportunities of AI China has experienced rapid growth in filing patents in recent years. In 2023, global patent filings reached about 3.6 million, utility models were at 3.1 million, and industrial designs were at 1.5 million with China dominating in most categories, closely followed by the US. However, a closer look at China’s IP landscape tells a less glowing story. For example, China submitted 1.46 million patent applications in 2022, but less than 800,000 were granted, indicating many were superficial or too limited in scope. Additionally, while China leads in patent applications, most are for domestic use. In 2016, less than a fifth were invention patents (which protect innovative new inventions), with most being shorter-term utility or design patents covering mild alterations and were mainly for use in domestic markets. China still leads with international patents (PCT), filing roughly 70,000 compared to more than 55,000 from the US in 2023. However, the US filed the most patents abroad (including PCT and direct applications to foreign IP offices with more than 242,000 filings in 2023) with China in third place behind Japan at roughly 120,000 filings. Nevertheless, China has ramped up its investments and efforts in the AI field with 38,000 GenAI patents filed between 2014 and 2023, surpassing all others combined. The US was second at 6,000. The news about DeepSeek’s latest AI model brought into focus the challenges for IP protection in the AI field. By using open-sourced collaboration, i.e. refining publicly available AI technology, DeepSeek demonstrated advanced AI technology can be produced without the massive investment of proprietary models. Although there are some issues about whether DeepSeek infringed on OpenAI’s IP or benefitted from the fair use doctrine only, the challenge for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to manage AI disputes is a complicated one.
China Takes Action over Malicious Trademarks China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) announced on February 24, 2025, that it had rejected 63 trademark applications attempting to maliciously register DeepSeek and its graphic. CNIPA stated that some agencies were suspected of providing illegal services, with obvious intentions of riding the popularity wave and seeking improper benefits. China has previously ordered the rejection en masse of such applications and also ex-officio cancelled trademarks that have been maliciously applied for and registered previously. For example, in 2022, CNIPA cancelled trademarks for Olympic mascots and athletes for infringing on the personality rights and other legitimate rights and interests of others, which caused significant adverse social impact, and damaged the image of China’s strict protection of intellectual property rights. CNIPA rejected 429 trademark applications, including those for Eileen Gu (a Chinese American dual national who chose to compete for the People’s Republic of China). CNIPA also cancelled, ex-officio, 43 trademarks, 20 of which were for Eileen Gu, the freestyle skier hero who won 2 gold medals and a silver medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. What this shows is that, at least for Chinese trademarks, CNIPA has increased its vigilance on trademark protection.
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