Electronic patent certificate in China

CHANG TSI
Insights

February14
2020

According to the No. 349 Announcement of the National Intellectual Property Administration of P. R. China, for all patents issued on or after 3 March 2020, only electronic patent certificates will be issued. Patent certificate on paper could be requested separately if needed.

It is currently not sure whether official fees would be involved, which will be implemented in March, we will update afterwards.

It is also not sure how a Chinese court would handle this. According to the experience of registered trademark (which also turned fully electronic), the court accepts a printed copy of the electronic certificate.

As with paper patent certificate, if the patentee changes after the patent certificate is issued due to assignment, no new patent certificate will be issued. The same is expected to be applied to electronic patent certificate.

In any event, it is the Patent Register records that matter, which show the current patentee and whether the patent is in force, and have to be submitted to the court when filing an infringement complaint.

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