China Laws and Regulations Update in October 2020
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.