Patent Examination at the State Intellectual Property Office in China

Abstract

AbstractSince the proclamation of the Open Door Policy in the late 1970s, the PRC has made a strong effort to promote innovation and establish an intellectual property system. Regarding the protection of intellectual property, the SIPO plays a central role in assigning property rights for patent inventions, utility models and design patents. Especially in recent years, there has been a tremendous surge in patent applications at the SIPO. For instance, while it took 15 years for the SIPO to receive its first million filings, it took only an additional year and a half to jump from three to four million fillings. At the same time, the SIPO has managed to shorten the examination time considerably. These contrary trends indicate the challenges and achievements faced by the Chinese patent office in trying to process more patent applications in a shorter period of time.