Singapore Fee Revisions: Renewal Fees to Rise in Eighth Year

The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) will be introducing a series of fee revisions with effect from 1 April 2017. New fees are applicable for payments made on or after the effective date. There are three key changes to the IPOS patent fee schedule:

Reduced Fees for (Supplementary) Search Report and for Search & Examination Report Requests

To lower upfront cost in patent prosecution, IPOS cuts the fee an applicant has to pay when requesting a (supplementary) search report or for a search and examination report. A further SG$300 (US$212) discount is available if, upon entering into the Singapore national phase, the PCT applicant requests for a search and examination report and indicates that an International Search Report (ISR) or an International Preliminary Examination Report (IPER) has been established by IPOS.

New Excess Claim Fee Structure

IPOS now charges SG$20 (US$14) per claim, for claims in excess of 25 at the grant stage. Under the new structure, each claim in excess of 20 will be charged at SG$40 (US$28) at both the search and examination or examination stage and the grant stage. An applicant will only be charged once for any claim in excess of 20 throughout the patent prosecution process, however. This change is aimed at encouraging applicants to file concise claim sets and thus streamline the patent application process in Singapore.

Increase in Renewal Fees

The renewal fees are to be increased from the eighth year onwards, in the hope that patent owners will reassess their patent portfolios and release unused patents back into the public domain. At the same time, patent owners who are willing to offer their patents for licensing may endorse them with Licenses of Right (LOR) and halve the payable renewal fees.

Patent Applications Down in 2016 in Japan

Although patent and utility model applications to the Japan Patent Office (JPO) were up 19% month on month to 30,287 in December, the cumulative sum for the year was still down very slightly from the 2015 figure of 324,581 to 324,748. This reflected a slight decline in patent applications, from 318,721 to 318,306, continuing a continuous yearly decline in applications since 2012. Utility model applications also saw a slight decline from 6,860 in 2015 to 6,442 in 2016, continuing a continuous yearly decline since 2012. Designs, however, saw growth both month on month, with 2,771 applications in December compared to the 2,418 in November and in terms of the annual total, with 30,822 applications for the whole of 2016, compared to the 29,903 in 2015.

Trademark applications saw a month on month decline, falling from the 15,636 in November to 12,833 in December, however applications saw a rise of almost 10% in 2016 from 2015, rising from 147,283 to 161,599, marking continual annual growth in applications since 2013.

China's Anti-Unfair Competition Law Could See First Revision in 24 Years

A draft revision to China’s Anti-Unfair Competition Law could result in the first changes to the law for 24 years, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency. The draft revisions specifically target dishonest internet marketing techniques, trade secret protections and trademark infringement, as well as raising the consequences for unfair competitive behavior.

One of the revisions states that firms cannot use technical methods to influence the choices of internet users online, or to interfere with the normal operations of other firms. This includes inserting links into the legal internet platforms provided by other firms forcing the user to jump to another target; as well as deliberately causing compatibility issues with the legal provision of online goods or services by another firm. This targets firms who cause internet users to navigate to sites other than the one they intended to on clicking a link. It also addresses attempts by certain companies to undermine the business services of others by going out of their way to cause compatibility issues.

A second revision raises trade secret protections, meaning that even without specific reference to trade secrets in an employment contract, employees or former employees who leak trade secrets can be prosecuted under the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, as well as the party who benefits from the leaked secrets.

The revision also states that entities that infringe on the registered trademarks of others, or on unregistered well-known trademarks in their company names in an attempt to mislead the public, may also be subject to punishment under the Anti-Unfair Competition Law.

The revision also prioritizes the payment of civil litigation damages over the handing over of fines and notes that those who engage in unfair competitive practices will have it recorded in their credit history. Violators risk being put on a credit blacklist, which could prevent them being given loans in the future.

New Wuhan IP Court to Hold Civil, Criminal and Administrative Cases in One

The Wuhan IP Court officially opened for cases on February 22, 2017. The Wuhan court is one of four cities involved in the first part of an experimental IP court scheme launched by the Supreme People's Court. The IP court was originally the Wuhan Intermediate People's Court, but it will now specialize in Intellectual Property cases. As well as hearing civil, criminal and administrative IP cases from the city of Wuhan, it will also assume jurisdiction of civil and administrative intellectual property cases, such as those involving patents, seed varieties, integrated circuits, trade secrets, trademarks and anti-trust, for the entire province of Hubei on first instance. Other courts in the city and the province will no longer hear such cases.

The new court will continue the Wuhan Intermediate People's Court model of hearing civil, criminal and administrative IP cases together.

The Wuhan court has hired five technical examiners who will serve as lay judges, as well as other technical experts and consultants hired by the court.

China’s court system is a four tier system comprising the Basic People’s Courts; the Intermediate People’s Courts, the High People’s Courts and the Supreme People’s Courts. In principle the courts of first instance are the Basic People’s Courts and cases on second instance are heard at the Intermediate People’s Courts and so on. But in practice, all four courts can serve as courts of first instance depending on the importance of the case. The intellectual property courts serve as equivalents to Intermediate People’s Courts.

Another IP court, with jurisdiction over the entire province of Sichuan, was launched in Chengdu on January 9, 2017, in addition to those already active in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

For more details on how IP courts function in China, you can check out our guide here.

Trademark Filing Office Set Up in Yunnan Province in Southern China

An office has now been set up in the city of Yuxi in Yunnan, to allow applicants to file trademarks within the province, without having to travel to Beijing to file their applications in person or apply through an agency. It is the only local office to have been granted permission to receive trademark filings by the Trademark Office of China's State Administration for Industry and Commerce. The central trademark office gave permission for the roll out of trademark filing services in Yuxi on January 6, 2017 and the office will formally open for applications on March 1.

In 2016, applicants from Yuxi successfully registered 10,623 trademarks, the second highest number in the entire province, including nine trademarks that are well-known nationwide and 212 trademarks that are well-known within Yunnan province.  

Delegates from China's State Administration for Industry and Commerce Visit Japan Patent Office

From January 23 to 25, a delegation headed by vice director of the Economic Information Center of China's State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), Fu Hongwei, visited the Japan Patent Office (JPO) to discuss the former's plans to improve their electronics systems, including the trademark application system.

The JPO showcased some of its electronic systems, including those used for applications, formality checks, substantive examinations and searching.

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