On June 28^th, 2020, the draft amendment to the Chinese Patent Law was submitted to the 20^th session of the Standing Committee of the 13^th National People's Congress for deliberation.

The draft proposes to remove the minimum statutory damages of 100,000 RMB imposed on patent infringer, considering that such a sum could be hefty if utility model patents and design patents that are of lower market values are involved.

To encourage innovation in design industry, the draft proposes to grant protection over partial designs of products to align with the internationally recognised practices.

To promote the exploitation of creations and to incentivize the inventors, the draft provides that the patentee, through royalty negotiation with the licensee, may grant the latter a general permit during the open licensing period of patent rights.

As part of China’s efforts in fulfilling its commitment made in the US-China Phase One Economic and Trade Agreement, the draft introduces provisions concerning patent term extension to compensate for unreasonable delays that occur in granting the patent or during pharmaceutical product marketing approvals and mechanism designed for the early resolution of pharmaceutical patent disputes.

Contributed by: Yuhang Zhang