Zhiwen, Liang --- "Patent quality improved by the courts: the Chinese dilemma and its solutions" [2017] ELECD 354; in Shi, Jichun (ed), "Renmin Chinese Law Review" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 252

Book Title: Renmin Chinese Law Review

Editor(s): Shi, Jichun

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781786434302

Section: Chapter 12

Section Title: Patent quality improved by the courts: the Chinese dilemma and its solutions

Author(s): Zhiwen, Liang

Number of pages: 21

Abstract/Description:

The Chinese Patent Act, which was promulgated on 12 March 1984, has unexpectedly played a vital role in Chinese economic development. Today, the number of patent filings received by China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) has reached 2 million annually, and the number of valid patents issued by the SIPO has reached 3 million. The SIPO has become the largest patent office in the world, overtaking the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in 2011. However, rapid growth in patent filings and patent issuance does not indicate a growth in patent quality, because numerous patent filings are not simultaneous with the growth in industrial innovation. The value of numerous patents is less than the fee for patent filing and maintenance. The patentability of numerous patents is questioned for not meeting requirements of novelty, inventive step or full disclosure. Low patent quality, in terms of patents which would not be issued according to the statutory standards of patentability, ‘sows substantial uncertainty at all levels of the patent system’, and ‘[u]ncertainty obviously makes business decisions based on patents (whether by patentees, prospective licensees, investors, etc.) much more difficult and costly’. Patent quality under China is criticized; and this topic features prominently in different newspaper headlines, such as ‘dust patent’ or ‘dust patents are over 80 percent’.