Last week I spent a few days in Beijing meeting
with various Chinese IP attorneys. As
always, the topic of the effectiveness of the IP system in China is an
important topic of discussion. The
following are the main points that struck me from these discussions:
- The proportion of the Chinese patent attorney’s work coming from Chinese companies continues to grow. The firms I spoke with varied between 20% to 50% of their work with drafting and filing for local clients. This is leading to Chinese firms being increasingly self-reliant AND looking for suitable foreign associates as the amount of work they are sending out to other countries is increasing.
- The local clients who are drafting and filing Chinese and international patents are mainly located in the south, and many firms are rapidly growing and expanding their operations from Beijing into the Guangzhou region and other southern provinces.
- Litigation is growing, with tens of thousands of IP litigation matters reaching the Chinese IP courts each year. About 90% of these are between two Chinese firms. The word is that the judges are usually pro-IP rights holders and, where the defendant is a substantial organisation as opposed to an individual, enforcement outcomes are very effective.
- The Chinese government is heavily subsidising the number of patents filed by Chinese companies, including international patents, and this has led to a lot of patents being filed without a great deal of thought by the applicants as to validity or enforceability. However, this is decreasing and the focus is shifting to quality.
I am attending the INTA meeting in Hong
Kong next and will post my thoughts on that soon.
Adam Hyland
