intellectual property

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I.Case in brief

This case relates to a patent for a cooled regenerated catalyst circulating method in the field of catalytic cracking, which is mainly used for catalytic cracking of heavy raw materials and catalytic upgrading of gasoline. The patent involved has achieved commercial success in the society and won the national science and technology award after it was published. The title of the patent is: “Method and equipment for circulating cooled regenerated catalyst”. Specifically, it relates to a fluidized catalytic cracking process where hydrocarbon feedstock is caused to contact and react with the catalyst in the riser reactor, the reactant flows into the settler to separate the catalyst from oil and gas, the separated catalyst to be regenerated is stripped in the stripping section and then enters the regenerator for coking regeneration, and thereafter, the regenerated catalyst is returned to the riser reactor for recycling. Claim 1 recites “fluidized media distribution facilities are provided at the lower part, and a catalyst mixing buffer space is provided in the downstream”, and such technical feature is also described in the description accordingly. The key technical dispute in this case focuses on the “mixing buffer space” located “downstream”.
Continue Reading Formulating Invalidation Strategy to Force Patentee to Pick One out of Insufficient Disclosure of Description and Lack of Inventiveness

I.Case in brief

China began to implement exhaust emission standards in 2001, which has gone through five stages and will soon enter in the sixth stage (CHINA VI). The exhaust gas reduction technology used in each stage is different accordingly. The two patents involved in this case protection is a metering pump device being used for exhaust gas purification, and the two involved exhaust gas reduction technologies meet CHINA V emission Standards and will not be adopted by CHINA VI Standard. Once China fully enters the CHNIA VI era in terms of exhaust emission standards, the metering pump devices claimed in the two patents conforming to the CHINA V Standards will be completely obsolete. Therefore, for the Plaintiff (i.e. the Patentee), there is a technical timeliness limitation in the case, i.e., if the Plaintiff cannot win the patent infringement lawsuit before China fully enters the CHINA VI stage, the technologies claimed in the subject patents will be out of date, and the subject patents will also be useless.
Continue Reading Designing Invalidation Strategy to Obtain Technical Feature Interpretation Favorable for Non-infringement Defense in Invalidation Procedure

Legal Key Points
1. Determination of the Disclosure Sufficiency of the Salt Form of Pharmaceutical Compounds
2. Determination of the Inventiveness of the Salt Form of Pharmaceutical Compounds
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Continue Reading Determination of the Disclosure Sufficiency and Inventiveness of the Salt Form of Pharmaceutical Compounds ——Analysis of the Eltrombopag Olamine Salt Invalidity Case

The Supreme People’s Court published a final decision in April, in which the court holds that the court may reduce the damages awarded in the infringement proceeding for the infringing acts taking place before the amendment made to the asserted patent claim, provided that the claim is amended by adding technical features from other claims during the invalidation proceedings, considering the balancing between the public interests and protection for patents. Therefore, it is recommended that the patentee shall be prudent when considering to amend a patent claim by adding features from other claims during the invalidation proceedings.
Continue Reading The SPC’s Precedent Shows that the Amendment to Patent Claims during Invalidation Proceedings by Adding Technical Features of other Claims May Reduce the Damages Awarded in Infringement Proceedings

Recently, the Supreme People’s Court of PRC (“SPC”) ruled in the final judgments of two cases of infringement upon utility model patents that even if the infringer had only committed the infringement conduct of offering for sale, it should be also held liable for the damages caused to the right owner in addition to ceasing the infringement.
Continue Reading The SPC Rules that the Infringer Only Offering for Sale the Accused Product Should be Also Liable for Damages

Applicant for cancellation: Heyi (Hong Kong) Asset Management Co., Ltd.

Trademark registrant: Dai Nengzhong

Key words: Trademark use, Non-use cancellation, Franchising,  Commercial administration of the licensing of the goods and services of others.
Continue Reading Use of the trademark in connection with “franchising” does not constitute the use on “commercial administration of the licensing of the goods and services of others” —-Trademark Cancellation Review against Registration for “和易购” No.13274116

Recently, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (“CNIPA”) published a Notice on Action Plan for Combating Malicious Squatting of Trademarks (“Notice”). The Notice emphasizes that malicious trademark squatting cause serious damage to the legitimate rights and interests of honest market participants and general public, and seriously harms the order of trademark registration management. In order to strengthen governance from the source and establish an efficient working mechanism for cracking down on malicious squatting, with coordination among different departments, the CNIPA has decided to carry out a special action against malicious squatting from March 2021.  The work focus on the following seven types of trademark malicious squatting seeking improper benefits, disturbing the order of trademark registration and causing relatively adverse social impact:…
Continue Reading The China National Intellectual Property Administration Initiate Special Campaign against Malicious Squatting of Trademarks

In recent years, with the development and maturity of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data, China has ushered in an upsurge of high-tech entrepreneurship.  With the timely launch of the Science and Technology Innovation Board, domestic high-tech start-ups have become the most popular investment targets in the capital market.  Since intellectual property (“IP”) rights are the core value of high-tech start-ups and the high risk of investment, it has become the most concerned issue for investors before making investment decisions.  Therefore, more and more investors choose to entrust intermediary agencies to conduct specific due diligence on the target company’s IP rights before making investment decisions to understand the target company’s IP rights and provide extremely important information support for investment decisions.
Continue Reading Introduction to Intellectual Property Due Diligence

According to the relevant provisions of the Chinese Civil Procedure Law, the parties in a patent civil infringement case shall perform the court’s effective judgments, rulings, etc.. Where the party refuses to perform, the opposing party may apply to the court for enforcement within two years from the effective date of the judgments, rulings, etc., or the last day of the performance period specified in the judgments or ruling. Since the limitation of action of the application for enforcement shall be governed by the provisions of the Civil Procedure Law on the suspension and interruption of the statute of limitations, and it is also necessary to avoid the transfer of property by the party liable for compensation after the delay in time, the party winning the lawsuit shall communicate with the infringing party as soon as possible to request it to conduct the effective rulings. The winner may apply to the court for compulsory enforcement directly after communicating to no avail.
Continue Reading Brief Introduction of Enforcements of Judgments in Chinese Patent Infringement Cases