China Protects the Graphic User Interface for Software as of May 1, 2014

(By You Yunting)  In our previous post, we introduced that Graphical user interface (the “GUI”) for software has not been protected in China. However, State Intellectual Property Office (the “SIPO”) suggested protecting the GUI in the latest Draft Revision of the Patent Examination Guidelines (the “Draft Revision”) on October 22, 2013. Recently, in the publication of the Decision of SIPO on Amending the Patent Examination Guidelines, It is the GUI that is protected by the Patent Law as of May 1, 2014.

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China Attempts to Utilize Patent to Protect Graphical User Interface for Software

(By You Yunting) In the epic battle of Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. starting from 2011, Apple filed its lawsuit against Samsung in the United States, alleged that Samsung infringed several graphical user interface (the “GUI”). If Apple filed its lawsuit against Samsung in China, however, its complaint regarding infringing several GUI may not be filed because at present China has not accepted applications of patent for GUI. Nevertheless, good news comes that China’s governments are changing their attitude on the application for GUI.

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China’s Millionth Invention Patent, a Global Record Made in the Shortest Time

As reported, China issued a patent certificate which marked the 1 millionth invention patent granted in the country. However, it only took China 27 years to achieve that amount in the invention patent since the nation’s first patent law took effect in 1985, and it’s also the record to make that achievement in the shortest time.

China spent 6 years to see her 10, 000th invention patent in 1991, and another 12 years to total 100, 000 invention patents (2003). But it only took the country 9 years to increase from 100, 000 invention to the 1 millionth (2012). So far as is known, till the end of the 2nd season of 2012, SIPO has received 3.114 million applications for invention patents, and of the 1 million granted by the middle of July, ,518,000 came from China.

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WIPO: ZTE and HUAWEI of China Rank First and Third in PCT Application of 2011

By the news of 6th March, WIPO released the statistics on the PCT application in 2011 global wide, among which ZTE Corporation of China with 2,826 published applications overtook Panasonic Corporation of Japan (2,463) as the top PCT applicant in 2011. Huawei Technologies, Co. of China (1,831) ranks third.

Despite difficult economic conditions, international patent filings under the WIPO-administered Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) set a new record in 2011 with 181,900 applications – a growth of 10.7% on 2010 and the fastest growth since 2005. China, Japan and the United States of America (US) accounted for 82% of the total growth. In 2011, the patent application in China saw a growth of 33.4 on 2011, the fastest growth among all, and totaled 16, 406; a growth of 8% in U.S.A totaled 48, 596 and a growth of 21% in Japan totaled 38, 888.

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