On December 11 this year, Premier Li Qiang signed a Decree of the State Council approving the promulgation of the "Decision of the State Council on Amending the Implementing Rules of the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China", declaring that the revised Implementing Regulations of the Patent Law will come into effect from January 20, 2024.

The Implementing Regulations of the Patent Law were amended including 13 chapters and 149 articles. The detailed content of the revision mainly involves five aspects:

1. To improve the patent application system to facilitate applicants and innovative entities.

2. To improve the patent examination system and enhance the quality and efficiency of patent examination.

3. To strengthen the administrative protection of patents and protect the legitimate rights and interests of patentees.

4. To perfect patent public services and promote the transformation and application of patents.

5. To enhance the connection with international rules and press forward high-level opening-up.

In addition, Shen Changyu, Director of the CNIPA, briefly introduced the positive role that patents play in supporting green technology and future industrial development.

With the continuous growth momentum of China’s technological innovation capabilities, the competitive advantages in new industries and new tracks continue of China are being demonstrated, especially the accelerated development of green and low-carbon industries led by electric vehicles, lithium batteries, and solar cells. Data show that in the first 11 months of this year, China's exports of electric vehicles, lithium batteries, solar cells, and other products respectively reached 269.3 billion yuan, 419.4 billion yuan, and 289 billion yuan, growing as a good development momentum, and the global market share of related products has also continually increased.

The rapid development of these industries is supported by patented technologies. Among them, in terms of electric vehicles, the number of valid global patents of the top 10 key companies in China's new energy vehicle sales has exceeded 100,000, growing rapidly year by year. In the field of lithium batteries, especially solid-state batteries, China is one of the world's major technology source countries. As of May this year, the number of global solid-state battery key technology patent applications was 20,798, of which 7,640, of China accounting for 36.7%. In the past five years, China's global patent applications for solid-state batteries have grown at an average annual rate of 20.8%, ranking first worldwide. For solar cells, there have been currently 126,400 global patent applications in China, ranking first with strong innovation capabilities meantime.

From CNIPA

December 26th, 2023