In order to facilitate the parties concerned to go through the relevant procedures for recovering their rights, CNIPA issued Announcement No.350.   After the issuing, the applicant, the patentee, the agency and other parties paid close attention to it.  The parties have raised some questions, and the answers to the questions related to patents and integrated circuit layout design are as follows.

I. How should the procedures for recovering rights related to Announcement No.350 be handled?

1. Completion of the request for recovery

For the recovery of patent-related rights, the "Irresistible Cause" should be checked under the "Reasons for Requesting the Rights" and the reasons should be explained.

For the recovery of the rights related to the layout design of integrated circuits, the "Irresistible Cause" shall be stated in the item "Reasons and Proof for Requesting the Rights" and the reasons shall be explained.

The reason may be that the party concerned is isolated, infected, the local traffic control or the place is closed, etc.

2. Preparation of the corresponding certification documents

3. Handling of relevant formalities

The request for recovery of the right and the supporting materials should be submitted, and the corresponding procedures should be handled before the right is lost, without paying the fee for the request for recovery of the right.

II. What kind of certification materials should be submitted?

Based on the special circumstances of this COVID-19 situation, the certification materials may be certificates issued by the local government of the party concerned, announcements issued, etc., or certificates that the party concerned was isolated due to the COVID-19 situation and infected with Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), etc.

In order to reduce the burden on the parties affected by the COVID-19, if a request for recovery of rights is submitted for the same reason for multiple applications, only one supporting material may be submitted, and the supporting material shall be submitted with one of the cases.  In other cases, only the application number of the case where the supporting material is located shall be stated in the request for recovery of rights. If the certification material has been filed with CNIPA, the filing number of the certification material may only be stated in the request for recovery of rights.

III. What are the types of rights that can be requested to be recoverd?

Under Article 6 of the Implementing Regulation of the Patent Law, in addition to the time limit stipulated in Article 24 (Grace Period for Not Losing Novelty), Article 29 (Time Limit for Priority), Article 42 (Time Limit for Protection of Patent Rights) and Article 68 (Time Limit for Infringement Litigation) of the Patent Law, if the party concerned loses his rights due to delay in the relevant time limit, he may request recovery of his rights according to regulations.

IV. How to deal with the delay under different resume work times in different places?

In view of the special circumstances of the COVID-19, the date of resumption of work issued by the local government of the party concerned is later than the deadline arranged by the State Council for the Spring Festival holiday in 2020, and the rights are lost due to the expiration of the relevant rights period.  If the party concerned requests to recover the rights, it may submit a request for recovery of the rights within the prescribed time limit, and explain the reasons.  At the same time, the corresponding procedures should be handled before the loss of the rights, without paying the fee for the recovery of the rights.  In order to reduce the burden on the parties concerned, if the local government publicly issues a notice of delay in resuming work, the parties concerned do not need to submit supporting materials.

                                              From CNIPA 

February 3rd, 2020