NEWS

Spokesperson and Office Director of the State Intellectual Property Office Heng Fuguang

In recent years, the State Intellectual Property Office has provided increasingly convenient public services to the public. Just now, Director Heng introduced that the State Intellectual Property Office will implement an inclusive intellectual property public service project this year. Could you please introduce in detail the main considerations and related progress of this project?

Director of the Public Service Department of the State Intellectual Property Office Wang Peizhang

Cover news reporter

Thank you for your question. As you mentioned, the review cycle for trademark registration applications in my country has been continuously reduced in recent years and is currently stable at less than 4 months. Under normal circumstances, the trademark registration cycle is stable at 7 months. At the same time, the quality of trademark examination has also been steadily improving, and the passing rate of trademark examination sampling has reached more than 97%. The improvement in quality and efficiency of trademark examination has brought tangible development dividends to market entities.

In 2023, we will continue to firmly establish the concept of reviewing trademarks for the party and the people, consolidate the results of review and improvement of quality and efficiency, take effective measures to solve the issue of consistency of review and trial standards, and steadily promote the quality and efficiency of trademark review and trial in a quality-oriented manner. Long-term, continuously meet the needs of market economic development and the people, and increase satisfaction and sense of gain.

First, continue to improve the trademark review and trial standards, sum up experience, listen to opinions from all parties, initiate partial revisions of the "Trademark Review and Trial Guidelines", and promote the consistency of standards in all aspects.

The second is to establish and improve a quality supervision system covering the entire process, formulate and implement the "Trademark Examination Quality Supervision and Management Measures", and maintain a steady increase in the passing rate of trademark substantive examination and random inspections. Combined with the statistical analysis of administrative response and case quality feedback, we will continue to promote the improvement of the quality of review cases.

The third is to continue to consolidate the results of reducing the registration cycle. In general, the trademark registration cycle is stable at 7 months; to optimize the objection review and review mechanism, and further reduce the average opposition review cycle from 11 months to less than 10 months.

The fourth is to maintain a high-pressure stance against malicious trademark registration and hoarding, and promptly handle malicious trademark registrations involving national interests and social and public interests. The entire field is systematically cracking down on malicious trademark registrations and continues to combat trademark hoarding and profit-making. Continue to strictly review geographical indication trademarks, strengthen the verification of geographical indication historical materials, and strictly reject suspected fraudulent geographical indication trademark applications.

The fifth is to strengthen the construction of the trademark examination talent team, implement the "Trademark Examination Talent Capacity Improvement Plan (2022-2025)" and "Trademark Examiner Position Level Management Measures (Trial)", establish a national trademark examiner professional ability evaluation system, and focus on Improve the professionalism of the review team. Thanks.

We have noticed that the State Intellectual Property Office recently publicly solicited opinions on the new draft revision of the Trademark Law. Could you please introduce the relevant situation?

Thank you for your question. The Trademark Law is the first specialized intellectual property law promulgated after my country’s reform and opening up. Since its implementation in 1983, it has been revised four times and has played an important role in protecting the interests of trademark owners and producers and operators, promoting the prosperity and development of the market economy, and creating a first-class business environment. As my country's economy enters a new stage of development, new situations such as insufficient balance of public interests in the trademark field, insufficient protection of exclusive rights, insufficient use of trademarks, and insufficient regulation of malicious registration, abuse of rights, and malicious litigation have gradually emerged. There is an urgent need to conduct comprehensive Amend the law to solve it systematically. In 2022, the State Intellectual Property Office will accelerate a new round of comprehensive revision of the Trademark Law, conduct multiple in-depth surveys, listen to opinions and suggestions, conduct in-depth research and demonstration, and form a revised draft of the Trademark Law, which has been publicly solicited on January 13 this year. The deadline for soliciting comments is until the end of February.

This draft for comments mainly involves modifications in six aspects:

The first is to comply with the development requirements of the new era. Improve the purpose of legislation, strengthen the party's overall leadership over trademark work, increase the balance between protecting the legitimate rights and interests of trademark owners and promoting the interests of consumers and society, and better serve the high-quality development of the economy and society. A new chapter "Conditions for Trademark Registration" is created to clarify registration requirements and strengthen trademark use, brand building and public services.

The second is to further safeguard social fairness and justice and fair competition market order. Clarify the circumstances of malicious trademark registration applications and legal responsibilities, introduce mandatory transfer of trademarks and public interest litigation systems, and systematically regulate malicious trademark registrations. It stipulates the principle of prohibiting the abuse of rights, adds a malicious litigation and counter-compensation system, and clarifies the boundaries of the exercise of trademark rights. Strengthen the construction of the integrity system in the trademark field and crack down on fabrication, concealment of important facts, and provision of false materials.

The third is to optimize the trademark authorization and confirmation procedures. Adhere to the unity of rule of law and people-centeredness, regulate the repeated registration of the same trademark that has existed for a long time, strive to solve a series of problems caused by repeated granting of rights, and reduce the burden on consumers to identify the true source of goods. Further improve the regulations on acceptance, withdrawal, suspension, opposition, etc., solve the problems that have long plagued practice, such as repeated cases, idle procedures, and low efficiency, effectively reduce the burden on applicants, safeguard the interests of rights holders and consumers, and promote the quality, efficiency and comprehensiveness of trademark examinations and trials. promote.

Fourth, continue to strengthen trademark use obligations.Guide trademark registration to return to the origin of the system of "registration for use", Guide trademark registration to return to the origin of the system of "registration for use", increase trademark use commitments and trademark usage explanation systems, clean up idle trademarks, release a large number of good trademark resources, solve the registration problem of market entities, and enable market entities with real demand for use to Obtain quality trademark registrations in accordance with the law.

The fifth is to strengthen the protection of legitimate prior rights and well-known trademarks.We will resolutely crack down on trademark infringement and unfair competition behaviors such as copying famous brands, free riding, using traffic, and infringing on the prior rights of others.

Sixth, improve collaborative governance capabilities in the trademark field. Improve administrative law enforcement measures and increase penalties for trademark violations. Specify the access requirements for trademark agencies and improve service levels. Strengthen the connection between administrative and judicial procedures, strengthen credit supervision and credit punishment, and purify the market environment.

At present, we have received feedback from all walks of life. Overall, everyone has positive comments on the revision of the Trademark Law. They believe that this revision thoroughly implements Xi Jinping’s Thought on the Rule of Law, adheres to a problem-oriented approach, effectively solves shortcomings and deficiencies in the trademark field, meets the needs of high-quality development in the new era, and will help improve my country’s trademark law. The legal system has an important impact.

In the next step, our bureau will carefully sort out and study the opinions collected, continuously improve the content of the draft, actively promote the legislative process, and strive to submit it for review, approval and implementation as soon as possible. Here, we also sincerely thank all sectors of society for their strong support in improving the trademark legal system. Thanks.

Deepening the reform of "decentralizing power, delegating power, delegating power, delegating power, delegating power, delegating power and optimizing services" and optimizing the business environment are key measures to stimulate the vitality of market entities and develop endogenous power. Please introduce what work considerations the State Intellectual Property Office has this year in continuing to deepen the reform of “delegating power, delegating power, delegating power, delegating power, delegating power, regulating services” in the field of intellectual property.

Thank you for your question. In 2023, the State Intellectual Property Office will thoroughly implement the decisions and arrangements of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China report on "deepening administrative simplification and decentralization, combining delegation and regulation, and optimizing service reforms", continue to stimulate the innovation vitality of market entities, and promote the continuous improvement of the innovation environment and business environment. optimization. We will mainly carry out work in three aspects:

First, continue to promote the standardization, normalization and facilitation of intellectual property government services. Focusing on the difficulties and blockages in intellectual property services for market entities, our office compiled the "Guidelines for Intellectual Property Government Services." The Guide is further enriched, improved, refined and extended based on the "List of Intellectual Property Public Service Matters", covering 70 government service matters of our bureau, and providing comprehensive and clear guidance for market entities. We will issue guidelines to the public through the National Intellectual Property Public Service Network, the National Government Service Platform and other channels, and guide the comprehensive implementation of the guidelines at the intellectual property business acceptance window or public service platform, so as to achieve the same standard and indiscriminate acceptance of intellectual property government services at the national level. . In addition, we will also focus on improving the quality and level of intellectual property government services, jointly release standards for intellectual property electronic certificates and licenses with the State Council's E-Government Affairs Office, and expand the scope of electronic license sharing applications. Vigorously promote "one-stop service" and "one-stop service", and realize "handheld inquiry" of patent and trademark pledge information before the end of June this year.

The second is to use greater efforts to promote “reducing certificates and making it more convenient for the people.” Through process optimization, online verification, notification of commitments, etc., the certification materials have been significantly reduced. In the past ten years, our office has reduced the number of certification materials in the field of patents and trademarks by approximately 29 million, effectively reducing the service costs of market entities. This year, we will make greater efforts to promote "reducing certificates for the convenience of the people", compile and publish a list of certification matters in the field of intellectual property, clearly indicate the certification matters required to handle business, and promote "no certification beyond the list". We will also further improve the "good and bad review" system for government services, make good use of active evaluation data, strengthen the supervision and management of government services, and enhance the sense of gain and satisfaction of market entities; further deepen the reform of notification commitments, and explore implementation in the field of patent fee reduction Establish a notification and commitment system, carry out verification of tax information of patent fee reduction applicants, and promote the introduction of credit commitments in the patent application process.

The third is to focus on work related to business environment innovation pilots and business environment assessment and evaluation. We will continue to deepen the work related to intellectual property rights in the State Council's business environment innovation pilot, summarize and form a batch of typical experiences and practices, and replicate and promote more effective reform measures nationwide. At the same time, we should make full use of the results of China's business environment assessment and promote all regions to take participation in the assessment as an opportunity to achieve legalization of reform results, precise policy implementation, and convenient services for the masses. In October this year, my country will participate in the second round of pilot assessments of the World Bank’s new global business environment assessment system. We will focus on market concerns, aim at world-class levels, and promptly guide local governments to adopt targeted reform measures to help create world-class business environment. Thanks.

The publisher just introduced that this year, the State Intellectual Property Office will still focus on improving the quality and efficiency of examination. Can you please introduce in detail the specific considerations in improving the quality and efficiency of patent examination?

Thank you for your question. In the past year, our office has thoroughly implemented the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions on improving the quality and efficiency of intellectual property examinations. Focusing on the goals and tasks of reducing the patent examination cycle proposed by the State Council in deepening the reform of “delegating powers, delegating powers, delegating powers, delegating powers, delegating powers, delegating powers, delegating powers, delegating powers, and optimizing services”, our office has taken multiple measures to promote patent protection. Improve the quality and efficiency of review work. In 2022, a total of 798,000 invention patents were authorized, and the accuracy rate of invention patent review and completion reached 93.4%.

Just now, Director Heng introduced the specific tasks to improve the quality and efficiency of patent examination this year, including reducing the invention patent examination cycle to 16 months, and the accuracy of case closure reaching over 93%. We will adhere to the guidance of national needs and user satisfaction, continue to optimize the working mechanism, rationally allocate examination resources, promote the concept update, technological innovation and work innovation of patent examination, continuously improve the examination quality and examination efficiency, and better meet the needs of economic and social development and The people need it. We will focus on the following aspects:

The first is to improve review policy standards. Based on my country's scientific and technological innovation capabilities and industrial development levels, we will continue to improve patent review standards in new fields and new business formats such as big data, artificial intelligence, genetic technology, and key core technologies. Introducing obvious creativity review into utility model review and obvious distinction review into design review to further improve the quality of authorization. Do a good job in the review of international applications for industrial designs, and fully fulfill the obligations of joining the Hague Agreement on the International Registration of Industrial Designs.

The second is to strictly control patent review and authorization. Effectively regard review quality as the lifeline of review work, continue to strengthen the construction of quality assurance system, business guidance system and business training system, strengthen internal and external quality supervision and evaluation, improve overall review capabilities, promote consistent implementation of review standards, and further highlight quality background , promote high-level innovation and high-efficiency application with high-quality review.

The third is to steadily improve review efficiency. We insist on seeking benefits from management, motivation from innovation, and efficiency from technology, optimize the allocation of review resources, explore working mechanisms such as innovation working group review, improve work processes, strengthen the application of new technologies in patent review work, and continuously consolidate and deepen the "opening up" policy. The review cycle of the "management and services" reform has been reduced and the effectiveness has been reduced. Make full use of multiple review modes such as priority review, centralized review, and delayed review to effectively meet the diversified needs of innovative entities and market entities.

The fourth is to continuously improve the level of facilitation of patent applications. Comprehensively implement patent electronic certificates. Continue to optimize the patent business processing system to provide the public with more convenient and efficient services. Cooperate with the revision and implementation of the "Patent Law Implementing Rules" and "Patent Examination Guidelines" to continuously improve the application and service processes. Thanks.

Trademarks are inseparable from the business activities of market entities. Please tell me, what measures will the State Intellectual Property Office take in relation to trademarks this year for market entities?

Thank you for your question. Market entities are the micro-foundation of the market economy. Trademark is the "identity mark" for market entities to provide goods or services, and is a powerful means for them to participate in market competition. The State Intellectual Property Office continues to promote the reform of trademark registration facilitation, improve the quality and efficiency of trademark examination, and provide efficient and convenient trademark registration services and high-quality and fair trademark examination and trial services to the majority of market entities. In 2023, we will place serving market entities in a more prominent and important position, continue to deepen the reform of trademark registration, further optimize the business environment, and stimulate the vitality of market entities.

The first is to build a "highway" for trademark registration to help enterprises "speed up". This year, we will continue to focus on improving the quality and efficiency of review. On the basis that the average trademark review cycle remains at 4 months and the general trademark registration cycle is stable at 7 months, we will further compress the average opposition review cycle to less than 10 months. Trademark pledge Registration is guaranteed to be completed within 1 working day. Study and expand the scope of application of rapid trademark examination to more effectively serve the country's major regional development strategies and the overall economic and social development. Continue to increase the publicity and promotion of regional brand collective certification trademarks, and make good use of the "green channel" to help regional economic development and rural revitalization. Last year, all trademark registration certificates were issued electronically, and corporate electronic business licenses were also connected to the trademark online application system. For corporate services, "one certificate is universal" for online identity. This year, we will further simplify the process and optimize the system so that companies can " The experience of "accessing one network and doing a package of things" is better.

The second is to make good use of the "fast track" for international trademark registration to help corporate brands go overseas. Last year, my country's Madrid trademark international registration business became fully electronic. Chinese applicants can handle all 10 businesses including application, renewal, transfer, and cancellation of Madrid trademark international registration online. This year, we will continue to improve the level of international trademark registration services, vigorously promote the addition of goods and services with Chinese characteristics to the Madrid System’s goods and services database, actively cultivate the trademark and brand competitiveness of Chinese enterprises, and fully support market entities in expanding overseas markets.

The third is to properly manage the "traffic lights" of trademark registration order and continue to release strict signals. Research and formulate a series of guidelines for trademark registration application and use in specific fields to guide market entities to standardize the application and use of registered trademarks. Research and formulate a series of guidelines for trademark registration application and use in specific fields to guide market entities to standardize the application and use of registered trademarks. Deepen the crackdown on malicious registration of trademarks in all areas of trademark review and adjudication, curb trademark hoarding that improperly occupies trademark resources and disrupt the order of trademark registration, continue to vigorously crack down on malicious hoarding and profit-making trademark transfers in the trademark transfer review process, and accurately crack down on the peddling of hoarded trademarks on online platforms behavior, promote the release of idle trademark registration resources, and better meet the needs of enterprises for normal business activities. Thanks.

My colleagues have just answered your questions on the relevant content. Due to time constraints, if you have any other questions of interest, you can contact the news and publicity department of our bureau.

This year is the first year to fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. It is also an important year for the implementation of the outline of building a powerful country in intellectual property and the "14th Five-Year Plan". To do a good job in intellectual property work throughout the year, friends from the media need to continue to give Care and support. We are willing to work together with everyone to tell the story of China's intellectual property rights, spread the voice of China's intellectual property rights, and create a good public opinion atmosphere for the construction of an intellectual property power. This concludes today’s press conference, thank you all.