Wu Xiaofen, a Chinese patent attorney of Sonderhoff & Einsel, conducted an incredible 21 seminars on the Fourth Amendment to the Chinese Patent Law for Japanese and foreign companies.

The Fourth Amendment to the Chinese Patent Law has attracted a great deal of interest from both domestic and foreign companies. The main amendments in the Fourth Amendment comprise of three main aspects: 1) strengthening the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of patentees; 2) promoting the implementation and application of patents; and 3) improving the patent licensing authorization system. The key items of include:
• The introduction of a punitive compensation system against malicious infringement where punitive damages may range from one to five times the amount of incurred damages or profit or royalty .
• Raising the statutory amount of compensation from 10,000 to 30,000 RMB at the lower end and from 1 million to 5 million RMB at the upper end.
• Introducing the Drug Patent Linkage System to resolve patent disputes arising during the approval of the drug registration.
• Extending the patent protection period for designs to 15 years and introducing patent protection for partial designs and a system of domestic priority.
• Establishing a system for adjusting the period of protection of invention patents when an invention patent application is delayed due to an unreasonable examination.
• Establishing a system for extending the protection period of patents for new drug inventions.
• Adding an open licensing system for patents.

Ms. Wu’s webinars analyzed, based on the main points of the amendments mentioned above, the impact and future direction of the Fourth Amendment on companies.