Patent Agent in Hong Kong

Number of patent applications in China

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 08:52:00 +0000

I attended a Symposium on China patent law jointly organized by HK and Guangdong Intellectual Property offices. Interesting things were learnt.

In the recent weeks, there were news about the world wide patent applications and the corresponding figures for patent applications filed to State Intellectual Property Office of PRC ("SIPO"). China is very proud of ever increasing number of cases. However, there were other angles to look at these.

We learnt that there were about 9000 staff in SIPO and we don't know how many of them are patent examiners, but it must be less than 9000. The number of practicing patent attorney in China is about 6000. There were 314,573 invention patent applications (commonly known as utility patent in US) filed in 2009. That means on average, each patent attorney handles about 50 patent application in one year. Furthermore, the boss of one agent firm told the Symposium that for a patent attorney to have a reasonable income, they need to handle about 100 cases per year.

I understand that for those patent attorney who handles 100 cases per year, they must be offering a cut-throat price to their customers. How come? I met some Hong Kong inventors recently in the annual meeting of the Hong Kong inventors group, I was told that they were able to get a patent agent to handle: drafting, drawing, filing and official fee of a utility patent (something like provisional patent in US) in China for about RMB2600, in today's exchange rate, is about USD380.

Now you understand why they need to handle 100 cases per year in order to have a reasonable income. Also, you can understand there is always room for price cutting if you want something from China.

Sorry my customers: I don't cut my price to meet my competitor. You can go somewhere else to get a cheaper service, not from me. Also, I strongly advise you not to file utility patent in China, instead you should file an invention patent application (which is more expansive).

Google finally left China

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 00:31:00 +0000

Is there a Google search engine in China? Yes or No?

Here is the story. Rumor has it, about 40 years ago. When Henry Kissinger visited China in the ice-breaking diplomacy, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai was asked whether there were sex workers in China. Premier Zhou said, "Yes," with a pause, and he continued "in Taiwan". And the whole China admired Zhou's wisdom, as he did not admit that there are sex worker in mainland China, in addition, restate their position that Taiwan is part of China.

Now, any one who asks "Is there a Google search engine in China?"

The answer is "Yes", .... "it is in Hong Kong."

DAB Trademark � Class �25� & �Class 41�

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 05:33:00 +0000

Another Chinese New Year tradition in Hong Kong is, going to the �flower market�!

It usually starts 5 or 6 days before the Chinese New Year, ends on the dawn of the New Year Day. The flower-owners and other stall-owners would usually drop their prices towards the dawn on the last day with a view to get everything sold. They would even destroy the flowers, tangerines etc as �want money don�t want goods� is their collective goal!

There are several flower-markets (Causeway Bay, Mong Kok, Kwun Tong, Tsuen Wan etc) and the biggest one is Victoria Park in Causeway Bay where a few pan-democratic parties would normally make use of this good chance to promote their own political parties.

After the recent �5 District Resignation� which aims at witnessing their belief on �universal suffrage� by Civic Party (�CP�) and League of Social Democrats (�LSD�) (the two political parties in Hong Kong), supporters have different ideas to support such movement. They put forward a sale of their design of tee-shirts (2 different style) of which the profits will go to the funding of this new political campaign in a booth in Victoria Park. In one of the two tee-shirt design, there is a similar trademark (both form and color) of their competitor � Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (�DAB�). This particular design is to put a mark that is similar to DAB�s trademark in the left-hand side, then following with a famous Chinese 4-word proverb whereas the last word means �shame� is missing. For the non-Chinese reader, that 4-words are always used together. Thus by quoting only three words, that implies �shameless�.

The idea is to use the DAB registered trademark and slightly modify it to make it looks different for the knowing, or if you really want to find out the different, but looks the same for the lay man. That is, the tee-shirt would implies that DAB is shameless. Subsequently, DAB was offended!

DAB has lodged a complaint as they are of the view that their trademark has been infringed. In the afternoon of 12 February 2010, the last second day of the flower-market, a few officers from Customs and Excise Department went to this booth to collect the unsold tee-shirts with a view to investigate the intellectual property infringement.

The �Trade Mark Record� as obtained from the Trade Marks Registry, Intellectual Property Department, shows that their registration number is 200102834, they registered for it in 1999 with the expiry date on 26 April 2016. They are registered as �Class 41� of which the specification reads: �arranging and conducting exhibitions, conferences, public meetings and group discussions for cultural and educational purposes; arranging and conducting lectures relating to culture and education; publication of books, magazines and printed matters; conducting and arranging conference, exhibitions, public meetings, group discussion and lectures relating to political affairs and elections, and the safeguard and maintenance of social and political stability in Hong Kong; all included in Class 41.�

Unfortunately, they have not registered for �Class 25�! If they do, they would have the exclusive right to use the mark for tee-shirts or other clothing. Without that, it can become a �passing off� case, they may consider to take civil proceedings. Infringement and passing off are different concepts in terms of intellectual protection and the whole case of Customs and Excise Department taking such a high profile action can be an interesting topics in the coming few weeks.

For further information, �Class 1� to �Class 34� are for �goods� while �Class 35� to �Class 45� are for �services�. Details can be found here.

Now it is time for me to make some purchases at the flower-market and check out other infringemnt cases! Well, as I am told that I look like Andy Lau, please do not ask for my autography or taking photos with me if his fans meet me there!

See you soon in the year of Tiger!

�Big Cleaning� with Pomelo-Leaf before Chinese New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:35:00 +0000

One of our Chinese New Year traditions is, to clean our bodies and hair with pomelo-leaf (???)! The best day to do the cleaning (not only body and hair, also the household furniture and utilities) is usually the 28th day of the last month before Chinese New Year, i.e. 11 Feb 2010 according to the Christian calendar in this year.

It is believed that pomelo-leaf is able to wash away the dirt, to cast away the evil spirits and to get ready for the brand new year!

Incidentally, just the right timing to see a half-page announcement of a �Pomelo Leaf Body Wash� in one of the local newspapers on 10 February which is the last fourth day before Chinese new year!

This half-page announcement mentions about the �Utility Patent� and �Trade Mark� in both China and Hong Kong. They started to apply for the patent in 2003 and successfully got it in 2005. �

While reading between lines, there is a hidden story of the Lee�s family for three generations. This family is given a name as �The King of Pomelo for three generations� (????) whom claims to conduct research and development on pomelo-leaf for a few decades. They have successfully added a particular element �flavonoids� (???) which is refined from pomelo-leaf into their product toiletries (including body wash, shampoo and facial wash).

This announcement serves to remind the public that there is only one brand of �pomelo-leaf� as well as to declare that this is now a legal case for any infringement.

Apart from using their specific products, I plan to buy some original pomelo-leaf (usually a few bunches for 10 Hong Kong Dollars) from the market for my body-cleaning tonight! I believe no one from the vegetable stalls will care about the �utility patent�, �trade mark� of the fresh pomelo-leaf.

Hope everyone has a brand new year of Tiger!

P.S. For those who want to check it out, the announced patent is CN03146856.X.

Google-China � Is �leaving China� a Whistle for a �Cyber War�?

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 02:11:00 +0000

Since the announcement of �A New Approach to China� by David Drummond (Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer of Google Inc) on January 12, 2010, the incident is not merely a commercial one, but is upgraded as a whistle for a �Cyber War� in a fortnight!

Apart from the possible �Cyber War�, it also ignites again the crisis of the diplomatic relationship between China and the USA just within two weeks. It is interesting to note that USA is making this incident more juicy and spicy while China remains silent!

When Hilary Clinton, US Secretary of State made an announcement of the same during her official visit at South Pacific on January 21, 2010, it indicates that the trust on cyber territories between China and the USA is collapsing. Furthermore, it is developed into a �Presidential level� when Barack Obama expressed that he is �troubled� about Google-China is being �cyber attacked� and he �wants answers�!

Even the Office of the United States Trade Representative (?????) is considering to lodge a complaint to World Trade Organization (�WTO�) about China�s intervening the cyber limitation which is violating the international trading ordinances.

One of the major differences in their approaches is, possibly that there is a huge variation on the definition of �cyber privacy concept� between China and the USA.

There are many USA enterprises which are establishing their offices in China, for instance, the garment industry, the luxury brands and the pharmaceutical products. If Google-China is to withdraw from the territory, it may be a �green light� for other corporations as these industries require a high degree of intellectual property rights (�IP rights�).

Comparing with other hot issues like human rights, Tibet, sale of military weapon to Taiwan etc., this particular �cyberattack� seems playing a more essential role for USA enterprises to leave China. As a majority of Chinese are concerned about their �face� issues, the USA could take this incident as a �stepping from the stage�, i.e. to provide a good chance for those corporations to leave China in a graceful manner.

Furthermore, as quoted from an article �In Digital Combat, US finds no easy Deterrent� of New York Times on 25 January 2010,

� � After that, the trail disappeared into a cloud of angry Chinese government denials, and then an ugly exchange of accusations between Washington and Beijing. That continued Monday, with Chinese assertions that critics were trying to �denigrate China� and that the United States was pursuing �hegemonic domination� in cyberspace. These recent events demonstrate how quickly the nation�s escalating cyberbattles have outpaced the rush to find a deterrent, something equivalent to the cold-war-era strategy of threatening nuclear retaliation. ��

You may see the original article here.

Dramatically, Barack Obama has announced their coming decision of the sale of military weapon to Taiwan in a high profile, which is after the last sale from President George Bush in 2008. At the same time, with the recent state-visit of Taiwan President Ma Ying-Jeou to Central America, the diplomatic relationship among China, Taiwan and the USA will draw more attention from the world-stage.

�World Expo Court�, a Privilege to World Expo Shanghai

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 06:19:00 +0000

�Welcoming World Expo, Fighting Against Piracy�

The �Shanghai World Expo� is definitely a milestone in the contemporary history of China at the last year of the 21st century�s first decade.

The term �World Expo Court� in the announcement (dated 25 December 2009) from the State Intellectual Property Office (�SIPO�) is absolutely an �eye candy� for me! It seems to be a �privilege� to China as this is tailor-made for the Shanghai World Expo.

This �World Expo Court� will definitely play a special role during the Expo period (i.e. 168 days/half-year running from 1 May to 31 October 2010). What kind of legal cases it will deal with? Does it imply that a great deal of �intellectual property� issues would happen? Who will be plaintiffs and the defendants? All those relevant issues come to my mind, say the logo, trademark, theme-song, the mascot, the tickets (9 different types of tickets) and even the Expo staff, the participants, the audience may occur.

Furthermore, I am also curious about the credibility of the judges, legal clerks, staff, their qualifications, identities, documents, news etc.

There is an old Chinese saying: �There is no silver being buried� which means �someone does something deliberately to tell others that he is innocent�.

Besides being the �world factory�, everyone knows China is a �paradise� for different types of infringement of luxury goods and even food and drinks � sadly to say so.

Can you imagine it is dramatic if a foreign luxury brand finds its fake products in one of the booths at the Expo Shanghai?

If a �World Expo Court� could handle any legal cases or legal disputes incurred during the period, would it be a great chance for them to showcase to the world that there are �Intellectual Property Rights� in China?

It reminds me another famous quote in China in the last decade: �Everything is fake except the liars in China�.

Speedy patent application drafting

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:11:00 +0000

I think our company break a record. From instruction to filing: Two days.

Meaning we have about 24 hours to handle one patent application.

Of course, it is not started from nothing. We were presented with a filed US patent, foreign filing right will expire the next day. So we still go though the normal process: (1) translate the US (English) Patent Application into Chinese; (2) rewrite the Chinese Patent Application suitable for filing to SIPO; (3) retouch on patent drawing; (4) fill up the right forms and (5) filing the same to SIPO.

And there are still follow-up actions, including the filing of Power of Attorney and the original Priority Certificate.

The only step we skipped is customer confirmation. We cannot wait for client confirmation because of time-zone difference, and we will fix any error later.

And because the client was thinking and thinking whether they should file the US patent to China, it took them 363 days to think, and we have 2 days to work on it.

And we did not charge extra for this urgent work, because this is a good customer who pay us really fast.

Google is leaving China

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:02:00 +0000

I guess everybody knew this already. I just want to pick up (and translate) a few interesting lines that may be non-Chinese reader missed in their daily news.

1. Sending flower illegally.

Once the news was spread around China, there are people in Beijing and Shanghai who sent flower (personally) to Google offices in these two cities. Then certain government departments announced that sending flower to Google offices need pre-approval. That is, a lot of people are sending flower illegally.

2. Someone's comment:

It is not Google leaving China, it is China leaving the world.

3. In twitter, this is the one of the hottest tag: #googlecn.

4. Google removed any filtering in it's search engine in China immediately. All of a sudden, it was reported that search engines of other local Chinese companies also lifted their filtering. Not because they want to support Google. It was reported that they actually use google.cn as their backend (without paying a license fee to Google). What a country of IP protection!

Enjoy the freedom while you can, and tomorrow may be you cannot access gmail in China!

A �Christmas delight/dessert� in China: Re-announcement of Anti-piracy & Pornography Hotlines

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 07:49:00 +0000

Anti-piracy and Pornography Hotlines Re-announced

The above China IP News was announced on 18.12.2009.

Frankly, I find this re-announcement interesting, amusing and juicy while surfing on this website! It is partly because of the timing of this announcement, i.e. the date of the announcement which is just one week before the Christmas time. It is also partly of the rise of the middle-class who adopts a more Westernized style of consumption pattern.

As it is widely known that Chinese are in the rapid rise of power in the first decade of the 21st century, they have a strong knack in aligning with the cosmopolitan lifestyle. It is essential to emphasis the need for the protection of intellectual property rights.

Even there are no public holidays during Christmas time in China, Chinese (especially citizens in major cities) and especially those returning from overseas (the so-called �sea-turtle� in Chinese) are tend to celebrate the Western festivals. They are willing to spend a considerable amount of money on consumption of gourmet and fancy products with their families, friends, colleagues and business partners. They may, intentionally or accidentally, buy pirate products as Christmas gifts.

Hence, the State Intellectual Property Office (�SIPO�) decided to announce the hotlines so as to remind the general public the importance of respecting intellectual property rights while purchasing the products before Christmas and New Year. It also provides the channel for the businesses of selling the legitimate products to report cases of piracy.

Following the long-standing policy on combating pornography, the SIPO would also stress the necessity for reporting pornography through the re-announcement of hotlines.

Incidentally, when there is �re-announcement� for the reporting of illegal products and any pornographic materials, it is an indication of its arising need and the pursuit of authenticity.
So, it is hoped that with the growth of urban middle-class individuals and DINKS (�Dual Income No Kids) in the PRC, they may want to have a taste of traditional Christmas dessert, such as Christmas pudding or gingerbread-man. They would also acknowledge and be concerned of the protection of intellectual property rights.

Dr Liu Xiaobo - Sentenced for 11 years

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 09:38:00 +0000

Dr Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years of prison terms on 25th December 2009, because he wrote several articles about human rights in China. Please join this facebook group to show your support, or to have a brief understanding of what is going on.

SIPO in 30 years

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:00:00 +0000

In marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of State Intellectual Property Office of PRC, an article in their web site draw one angle of the history in the past 30-years.

The article address the quantity increased in the past 30-years with a chart showing what they called a steady and prosperous growth. The first Patent Law was enacted on 1st April 1985 and basically no much activity between 1985 and 1998, after hitting the milestone of 100,000 annual patent applications, a major turning point happens in 2000-2001 and the number climbed up drastically. Last year (2008), that increased to more than 800,000 patent application in one year. According to the official line, this reflects the success of the patent system in China.

As a matter of fact, on the day that patent law was enacted, SIPO received 3455 patent application in one day, according to official record.

Fifteen years later, the cumulative total of patent applications reached 1,000,000 in January 2000. The second 1 million patent applications hit SIPO on March 2004, 39 months later. The third 1 million patent applications took less than 30 months, the fourth took 18 months, and the fifth took 16 months in March 2009.

Comparing the same time frame between 1985 and 2008, the GDP growth more than 30 times while the annual patent applications growth close to 90 times.

Here is the link to the article in Chinese with the chart on patent application growth.
http://www.sipo.gov.cn/sipo2008/mtjj/2009/200912/t20091210_484908.html

This is a very impressive growth, and it reflects the China enterprises are using patent protection to protect their invention, and at the same time, foreign enterprises really thinks that is important to apply and get patent granted in China. I also understand that the growth reflects in people turn over in some of the agent firms in China.

The Hong Kong Innovation-Knowledge Enterprise Award

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:27:00 +0000

Congratulations to one of my clients, who is one of the award-winners of the �Innovation-Knowledge Enterprise Award� which is co-organized by the Hong Kong Productivity Council and Guangdong Provincial Intellectual Property Office since 2004.

This award is targeted with a view to increase the Intellectual Property (�IP�) management capability of Hong Kong and mainland enterprises. When the enterprises are facing the arising challenges from the Pearl River Delta region due to the economic upsurge, this award serves as a tool to upgrade them from Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) and Original Brand Manufacturer (OBM).

As it is commonly known, or recognized, that there are tremendous infringement products from the mainland China, this award become more important, meaningful and perhaps sarcastic!

My client is a product development and investment company. The main business is to identify product improvement opportunity and invest in the design, whereby intellectual protection is the major vehicle to protect the return on investment.

My client is involved in inventions related to product improvement and new product design. The areas of improvement include improvisation on functionality, durability, cost in production and maintenance. They have the core design and management team resides in Hong Kong and has a manufacturing facility in Dongguan where a team of draftsmen, testing engineers and production workers helps the design, prototyping, testing and pilot run process. With more than 150 workers, the Dongguan factory also produces products that export to North America, Europe and Middle East.

My client has applied and obtained more than 10 patents for design done before 2006. All of these patents are now commercialized and products being sold or licenses granted to US companies. Since 2006, the group has filed more than 15 patent applications per year in the PRC, United States, and European Community. Currently, they own more than 70 patents or patents pending right in these countries/community. Non-exclusive license rights for about one-third of patents pending are granted to companies which expects to market products using these new invention in their respective countries. Of course, we handle most of their intellectual property related work.

Further information about the Award can be found here:

http://www.hkpc.org/html/eng/award_schemes/award_schemes.jsp#awards6

http://www.itc.gov.hk/

http://www.cedb.gov.hk/about/index.htm

Back to the blog

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:46:00 +0000

I am back to the blog! Isn�t it funny or ironic?

My blog is 3 years old, it is always here. I remember the time when I created it on 26 December 2006. Yes, the Boxing Day, a warm morning when I woke up after a great meal with a few bottles of wine on Christmas day with my family and friends. As usual, I switched on my computer after two cups of coffee, I decided to create my own blog! Well, being a blogger is a good choice of gift for myself. It may be a bit late as a Christmas gift but just perfect timing as a New Year gift.

Time flies � I am not an active blogger!

It is obvious that I do not spend time on this �gift� as I have been busy in my business. My last article was written in early June 2009, so you may imagine how many phone calls, emails, paperwork I have dealt with and how many meetings, negotiations and trips I have taken during these six months!

From now to the coming Boxing Day, I am sure I would spend more time here as I really want to share with you all my experience and thoughts on patents, trademarks, true or fake products, the news around us in China and the World, and so on.

4 June 1989 Tiananmen Square

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:06:00 +0000

It has been 20 years.

Let us have a moment for those who were killed, hurt, and deprived of human rights since then. There are activists still kept in prison because of what happened 20 years ago.

There are many ways to show we are concerned. Here is one of them:
My Square is Tiananmen Square - Solidarity photo action

The Chinese government also shows their concern by shutting down web access to a lot of sites in the past few days, including twitter. People in Southern China also cannot watch Hong Kong TV that they used to watch in the past.

Chinese Bidder on Yves St. Laurent Auction Refuses to Pay $40 Million

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:30:00 +0000

I think that caught a lot of attention lately, in particular, the Chinese guy who succeed in bidding the Chinese Bronze Rat Head and Rabbit Head last week at Christie's.

This 'winner' hold a press conference on 2 Mar 2009, proudly saying that he will not pay, and the other spokesperson in the press conference said (in Chinese) "The world has learnt a lesson".

I think we learnt that lesson long time ago and this press conference just reinforce our learning:
We demand money on account for all Chinese customers, no matter they are new or recurring customers. In particular, when it is time for filing of application that we need to pay for government fee, we felt as urgent as the client. That is, if they don't pay us money on account, we will not pay on their behalf for any government fee.

We do understanding inventors / companies do have cash flow problem from time to time, but holding a press conference and say that out loud (and proudly) "... what I want to stress is that I will not pay" is a little bit too much.

See the related news here: http://abcnews.go.com/International/Business/story?id=6987633&page=1

Meeting fellow professional in Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:04:00 +0000

From time to time, I have questions such as trademark registration in Indonesia and Italy. Apart from Google, I am also using facebook to look for fellow professional and groups in other countries. I found that very useful.

Peace in Gaza

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:39:00 +0000

In the year of 2009, we wish peace in Gaza and concern about types of weapons used by the invading army.

Blooming business

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:21:00 +0000

It seems that the patent business is not affected by the current economic downturn. At lest two of our customers have increased their global patent filing in the past two to three months. I understand that they are preparing for roll out of new product that is cheaper to manufacture; and these improvement include lower the cost to make, transport (reduce weight) and maintain. To make all these patent protection, it also means that their competitors cannot use such new method to produce lower cost product.

I am back with a new hosting service

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:32:00 +0000

Hi,
I was busy, then I am lazy, then problem with hosting service. Now I am back. Hopefully I can write / blog more.

How to become a patent attorney in Hong Kong

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 11:45:00 +0000

From Day One, this is a personal view blog, so I share my personal experience.

First, I need to say a few words about not writing for a long long time. When you are busy, you stop for a few weeks, then it extends to a few months. I wanted to pick up again, then I forgot the password. Now that is a push with two comments. So I am back.

There is no such thing as patent attorney in Hong Kong. As there is no independent patent examination in Hong Kong, there is no need for this profession.

Typically a lawyer may take this up as one of the area of practice. There is no formal requirement who can and connot take up patent work.

There is a Asia Patent Attorney Association - Hong Kong Group. Being a member is as close as being a patent attorney in Hong Kong. To become a member, you need a few years experience in patent drafting and execution, and referral from a few members.

Without a membership, if you know what you are doing, and have trust from your clients, and do produce good result, then you can call yourself whatever you like. This is a unregulated profession.

Sent via my phone...

New administrative regulation for patent application

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 10:03:00 +0000

The State Intellectual Property Office of PRC (SIPO) issued a administrative regulation on 27 Aug which will become effective on 1 Oct 2007. As of today, I cannot find the English version on the official web. This is the highlight, with the original numbering:

=====================
....
2. Applicant or Patent Agent should not involved in abnormal patent application;

3. Abnormal patent application includes:
3.1 Same person or legal entity has submitted multiple patent applications with similar contents; or caused to submit multiple patent applications with similar contents.
3.2 Same person or legal entity has submitted multiple patent applications that copy prior arts; or cause to submit multiple patent applications that copy prior arts.
3.2 Patent agent that submit patent applications as described in 3.1 and 3.2.

4. SIPO may take action against abnormal patent application according to patent law and regulations, and may take additional action....
============

The Chinese version of this can be found here.

So what happen to incremental improvement to existing technology? On the good side, it protect existing technology, but on the other hand, it discourage small but useful invention. This may be working in line with the recent patent changes in US. However, the new regulation may have a damaging effect on the raise of annual growth of patent application in China, currently running at a rate of 20%+ per year. But like other regulation in China, we cannot only read the words, we really need to wait and see how SIPO exercise the right of this regulation.

Service for inventors in China

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 15:47:00 +0000

Hi, after so many months, I am back. I was planning for expansion of our service offering, so we dont want to limit ourself to handle patent applications in China, Hong Kong, United States and Europe. Let's talk about that later.

While we are brain storming and soul searching, we looked at what type of services are being offered for inventors in China and found something interesting. Here is the first one, with the web site called patent-cn.com, this is a site that post descriptions and most likely pictures, so in case you dont read Chinese, you can still enjoy some good looking pictures.

You may wonder that good looking pictures may not be able to reflect a new technology break through. Yes, that is right, as you may know more than 80% of patent applied in China are design patent, so a picture or two will give you good description of the patent.

Is it a mouse (Micky Mouse), no, it is a cat!

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Mon, 21 May 2007 09:21:00 +0000

Now it is a well publized news that a state run amusement park in Beijing has all sorts of characters not own by the park, like all Disney characters, Hello Kitty, Dora Amon, etc, running around in the park as an attraction. It was reported that the park was operating in this way for more than one year. The banner at the gate said, 'Disneyland is too far away, King Shan Park is close to you.' When confronted by a Japanese reporter, the park manager said that 'that is not Micky Mouse, as a matter of fact, it is a cat with big ears...' More could be seen at here.

This is not a new trick, about 2400 years ago in China, a senior offical wanted to know who were on his side, brought a deer in front of the king and said it was a good horse, some of the officals kept silence while the others said that it was a deer, not a horse. King did not know who to trust, eventually more and more said it was a horse. Then the testing offical knew who were his party members and used them to fool the King.

History is repeating 2400 years later. You think it is a mouse or a cat, check it out again!

Verdict is out - BT is illegal in Hong Kong

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Fri, 18 May 2007 06:21:00 +0000

The verdict for the first BT case is out from the Court of Final Appeal, the Chan who used seeds to upload three copyright movies was found guilty and the three months sentence starts immediately. Chan went through the Magistrates Court, Appeal Court and the Court of Final Appeal is Chan's last chance for his case to be heart. It was reported that Chan admitted the act of uploading copyright material in the first caution statement after Customs and Excise Department raided his home. The later hearing was mostly related whether Chan's act was really an act to 'distribute' 'material' to the public.

Since the arrest, there is no other publicized arrest of the same nature in Hong Kong.

Visit China Import and Export trade fair

noreply@blogger.com (Patent Agent) — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 01:41:00 +0000

This session I am very busy with various business and personal matter, so have to do the visit on Sunday.

I visited the show because two of our clients asked us to do, to check out if there is any infringing products. I spotted one potential infringement and decided to purchase the product for further analysis. We will have our associated company in China to handle that later.

After doing what I have to do, I also want to see other types of goods, fishing if you like. I saw at least 5 counts of possible infringement, two are design patents, one utility patent. These can be good job to work for their IP owner. As I am not a lawyer in Hong Kong, I have more freedom to cold call custmers!