1.Patent Law of China (Revised)

Promulgated by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress

Promulgation date: 19 October 2020

Implementation date: 1 June 2021

Document number: No.55 Chinese President Order

The revised law mainly deals with the following matters.

I.Increase of the cost of infringement, making infringers pay high prices

The revised law creates rules on punitive damages, under which in serious cases of patent right infringement, the court can decide the amount of damages at one to five times an amount calculated on the basis of patent holder’s loss, infringer’s benefits and times the patent license fee. In addition, it increases the upper limit of statutory damages to RMB 5 million and their lower limit to RMB 30 thousand. To solve evidence collection problems in patent cases, the revised patent law further improves evidence rules and provides that if the patent holder has make greatest possible efforts to collect evidence and most of books and materials connected with infringement are controlled by the infringer, the court can order the infringer to present such books and materials and reduce the patent holder’s burden of proof.