SIPO Announced Changing of Composition of Patent Certificates and the Duplicates thereof
In order to better meet the needs of parties involved in economic and legal activities, the State Intellectual Property Office of the P.R.C. (“SIPO”) provides real-time, convenient and transparent information channels to patent right holders and the public through an internet platform. Based on this foundation, SIPO has now further optimized the composition of patent certificates and duplicates thereof. According to Announcement No. 257 (the “Announcement”) released on February 22, 2018, patent certificates and duplicates will no longer include patent pamphlets. Instead, patent pamphlets will be available only in electronic format. SIPO will adjust the composition of patent certificates and duplicates in two steps as follows:
- For patents granted during the period from March 2, 2018, to April 24, 2018, patent certificates will comprise the first page of the certificate and the title page of the patent pamphlet.
- For patents granted on and after April 24, 2018, patent certificates and duplicates will adopt the new version. The new version will no longer contain patent pamphlets but will include the granted patent number and the address of the patentee.
According to the Announcement, the period from March 2, 2018 to April 24, 2018 is a transition phase during which patent certificates and duplicates will still be issued in the old version but will only comprise the first page of the certificates and the title page of the patent pamphlets. For patents granted after this transition period, SIPO will issue in accordance with the new version. The old version and the new version of patent certificates and duplicates will have the same legal effect. For patent certificates and duplicates that have been issued in the old version, SIPO will not replace them with the new version, unless stipulated otherwise.
Although SIPO will no longer issue patent pamphlets, starting from the date of grant, the patentee and the public will be able to browse and download the corresponding patent pamphlet at the Chinese patent publication and grant system (http://epub.sipo.gov.cn) on SIPO’s website.
Other than including the information about the patent number and the address of the patentee, SIPO has not announced the composition of the new version of patent certificates. Osha Liang will continue to monitor further developments on this matter and will provide timely updates in our future newsletters.
