The patent protection of design is extended to fifteen years.

    On December 23rd, the 7th meeting of the 13th the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) heard the explanation of the draft amendment to the Patent Law made by Shen Changyu, director of China National Intellectual Property Administration, entrusted by the State Council.

    Shen Changyu introduced that China’s current patent law was implemented in 1985 and was amended three times in 1992, 2000 and 2008, which played an important role in encouraging and protecting inventions and promoting scientific and technological progress and innovation. With the development of the situation, there are some new situations and problems in the patent field, so it is necessary to amend the current patent law.

    The draft increases the compensation for patent infringement. Provisions: for intentional infringement of patent rights, if the circumstances are serious, the amount of compensation can be determined within one to five times the amount calculated according to the losses suffered by the obligee, the benefits obtained by the infringer or the multiple of the patent license fee; It will also increase the amount of compensation that the court can determine at its discretion when it is difficult to calculate the amount of compensation from 10,000 yuan to 1 million yuan as stipulated in the current patent law to 100,000 yuan to 5 million yuan. The draft also improved the patent administrative law enforcement. Provisions are added: the patent administrative department of the State Council can handle patent infringement disputes with great influence in the whole country at the request of the patentee or interested party; The department in charge of patent affairs shall handle patent infringement disputes at the request of the patentee or interested party, and may deal with cases of infringement of the same patent right within its own administrative region in a consolidated manner; cases of cross-regional infringement of the same patent right may be requested to be handled by the department in charge of patent affairs of the people’s government at a higher level.

    In strengthening the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of patentees, the draft also improves the burden of proof. Additional provisions: in order to determine the amount of compensation, the people’s court may order the infringer to provide the account books and materials related to the infringement when the obligee has tried his best to provide evidence and the account books and materials related to the infringement are mainly in the hands of the infringer. If the infringer fails to provide or provides false account books and materials, the people’s court may refer to the obligee’s claim and the evidence provided to determine the amount of compensation. In addition, the draft also clarifies the joint liability of network service providers for network infringement. Provisions are added: the patentee or interested party may notify the Internet service provider to take necessary measures such as deleting, shielding and disconnecting the infringing product link according to the effective judgment, ruling or conciliation statement of the people’s court, or the decision made by the administrative department for patent affairs. If the Internet service provider fails to take necessary measures in time, it shall bear joint liability.

    Shen Changyu introduced that in order to promote the implementation and application of patents, the draft also clarified the unit’s right to dispose of service inventions and creations, and added provisions: the unit’s right to apply for patents and patents for service inventions and creations can be disposed of according to law, property rights incentives can be implemented, and equity, options and dividends can be adopted, so that inventors or designers can share the innovation benefits reasonably and promote the implementation and application of related inventions and creations. In order to meet the needs of China’s accession to The Hague Agreement on the protection of design, the draft will extend the protection period of the patent right of design from 10 years stipulated in the current patent law to 15 years. (Reporter Xu Wei)