As Jonathan Yuan of Liu Shen & Associates writes, intellectual property in China has always been an area of extreme interest for foreign companies. Any revisions to the patent, trade mark or copyright laws are watched closely, and analysed tortuously for any positive or negative business implications.
CLP spoke to four specialists: Alison Wong of Bird & Bird, Chloe Lee of Stephenson Harwood, Howard Tsang of Wilkinson & Grist (Beijing) Intellectual Property Agency, and Ronald Chu of Deacons. In general, practitioners seem to agree that the changes made in the Implementing Rules (and the earlier amendment to the Patent Law) help bring Chinese patent law more into line with that found in many developed countries.
“In particular, one of the biggest changes is the move to an absolute novelty standard, in line with ... most developed countries,” says Alison Wong.
[ It is clear that activity in the IP field will be significant this year:...
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