Patent Amendments ©(Part II of II)

The Greater China IP Updates ĄV August 2025

By Lyndon

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China Cracks Down on Local IP Abusers

Labubus, a furry bunny-eared elf doll sold by Chinese toy company Pop Mart, have gone viral this year. The demand has gone worldwide, and even the Chinese authorities are crowing about Pop Mart as the latest example of a Chinese brand to gain popularity overseas. The People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s official mouthpiece, praised Labubus as representing the shift from Made in China to Created in China following the likes of the viral video game Black Myth: Wukong and AI company DeepSeek. In a country that is trying to shed its reputation as a land of knock-offs, a more recent concern is the pressing need to crack down on fakes that have been springing up all over the place. Partly due to limits on supply of the official product and also the potentially lucrative profits to be made – Labubus official versions sell for between 99 and 399 yuan, with resale prices soaring much higher – the temptation for underground manufacturers to get in on the action and cash in has been overwhelming. For the Chinese authorities, it is a matter of national pride to clamp down on IP theft and go after the bootleggers. For example, local authorities in Shenzhen’s Huaqiangbei recently said they would be inspecting vendors for shoddy and counterfeit Labubus. As China continues to create more soft-power IP products that are attractive not only to their citizens but also to consumers globally, the need to protect IP will become stronger.

China’s Total Valid Domestic Invention Patents Reaches 4.97 Million

As of May 2025, granted domestic invention patents in China reached 4.97 million, underscoring the health of the IP system and the innovative capacity of the inventors according to a report published by the country’s top intellectual regulator. It confirms the observation that China is evolving from a major IP importer to a leading global creator, according to the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) spokesman Guo Wen. This can be attributed to the agency’s efforts to address the real-world needs of innovators by refining patent application evaluation standards, raising application quality, and streamlining examination processes through a demand-driven review system. As an example, from January to May 2025, CNIPA processed 84,000 priority patent examinations, fast-tracked 116,000 applications, deferred 9,300 reviews and conducted 13 batches of centralized examinations. The high-value patents that result from this will strengthen industrial competitiveness, safeguard national industrial security, and drive sector-wide upgrades the report went on to say. To further elevate patent quality, CNIPA has enhanced rapid collaborative protection mechanisms and sharpened service precision. The agency operates 77 national protection centers offering one-stop IP services.

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