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Patent
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Trademark search

It’s a necessary step before filing a trademark application. The CNIPA database enables to find the identical or similar trademark application/registrations by your own, but the similarity judgment requires rich experience which shall be provided by a trademark attorney. The search can help you save money and time to wait for the conclusion issued by CNIPA.

Payment for annual fee

Borsam has its own annual fee management system to help our client monitoring the deadline, and sending reminder months before each deadline.

Trademark registration

There are two ways to file trademark applications in China, i.e. by online filing system and by post. The trademark office is strict on the formalities check, any defects may result the application be sent back. Meanwhile, according to the Chinese trademark law, a foreign applicant shall entrust a Chinese attorney to file the applications. Normally, it will take about one year to receive the decision of given or not.

Non-infringement opinion

This is a legal opinion issued by patent attorney through comparing a product and others’ given patent to determine whether the product have a risk of infringing others patent rights.

Respond to rectification notification

The office action is issued during the preliminary examination stage mainly concerning the non-standard goods items. In China, CNIPA adopts its own classification table which is reedited from Nice classification Table but with some new items. Although the non-standard goods/services items for an application can also be registered in China, it has a high risk to receive a rectification notification.

Patent License

Patent license means the patentee licenses someone else in a certain period and/or in certain place to enforce his patent and get payment therefore. The patentee still owns the patent rights while the licensed party can only use the patent. It is not compulsive to record the patent license agreement before SIPO, but it have a three-month deadline to record it before SIPO. The parties can also request to record the patent license for a pending application.

Request to change of name/address

This request is used to change the name and address information of current applicant/holder and the trademark is still owned to the same person/entity after change.

Patent Search

Our patent search services include novelty search, status search, subject search and FTO search.

Request to change of agency

This request is used to change the agency recorded in CNIPA, after filing said request, all the notifications for this case will be send to the new agency until the trademark approved or another change rose.

Patent invalidation

The invalidation request can only be initiated after grant of a patent, according to Chinese patent law article 45, any party may file the invalidation request before Reexamination board if he find the patent is not in conformity with the relevant provisions of this law.

Request to record a license

This request applies to record a trademark license before CNIPA. According to the Trademark Law, the licensor shall file a request to record the trademark license agreement within 3 months from the signing date.

Filing of PPH request

PPH request is a program contracted between SIPO with other patent offices, that means, under PPH, participating patent offices have agreed that when an applicant receives a final ruling from a first patent office that at least one claim is allowed, the applicant may request fast track examination of corresponding claim(s) in a corresponding patent application that is pending in a second patent office. At present, SIPO has contracted with Hungary, Israel, Iceland, Sweden, United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Singapore, Canada, Poland, Korea, Austria, Mexico, Denmark, Finland, Russia Federal, German, United States, and Japan.

Filing request of opposition for a Chinese national trademark application

This request applies to oppose the national trademark application which is published and enters into the three-month opposition period. Any interested party can file a basic request within this period and supplement the evidences within three-month after filing said basic request. The three-month deadline is calculated from the publication date of the application.

Initiative amendment for patent applications

For a national phase entering application in the manner of invention patent, the applicant may request to amend the application when entering into national phase of China and/or 3 months after entering into substantive examination. But for a utility model patent application, it’s only available to amend within 2 months after filing the application.

Filing request of opposition for an international trademark application with designating China

This request applies to oppose the Madrid international application with designating China, after the publication of The WIPO Gazette of International Marks, any interested party can fill an opposition against the international trademark application before CNIPA within 3 months. The three-month deadline calculated from the first day of following month after the publication. For example, if the publication date is June 22, 2016 that the deadline for opposition would be October 1, 2016.

Responding to a rectification notification

It’s common to receive a rectification notification for a patent application in the preliminary examination stage which request to respond and remedy within 2 months from the receipt date of the notification.

Request to withdraw kinds of application

Once the request made, the procedure will not stop until the final decision made. Hence, if the applicant found the situation is changed and he would never need to go on the foresaid application that he may file a new request to withdraw it. But the fees and document submitted to CNIPA cannot be return.

Patent Re-examination

The re-examination procedure can only be initiated after receiving a Notification of rejection, and the corresponding request shall be made within 3 months after receiving said notification to TRAB. Only two kinds of decisions come out for the reexamination, i.e. turn the application back to SIPO to continue the examination or maintain the decision of SIPO. If the applicant dissatisfied with the maintain decision of TRAB, he may also file a lawsuit before court within 3 months from the receipt date.

Request to cancel a trademark registration

If a trademark is already not in use, the applicant can request to cancel the trademark registration by filing a simple request before CNIPA.

Responding an office action

The office action is the opinion from examiner to communicate with the applicant/agency about the application indicating the formalities or substantial defects in the application. In general, not only the invention patent application will receive an office action in the examination, because in recent years, the examiner also issues office action for a utility model and design patent. The deadline for responding the office action is 2 months from the issue date but except the first office action for invention patent. However, in practice, we also meet the particular situation that the examiner designate a deadline but shorter than said period.
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Request to issue a certified copy of an international trademark application

The Chinese trademark office doesn’t issue a trademark certificate for an international trademark application with designating China, so it’s inconvenient to prove when enforcing parts of the trademark rights. The trademark holder can request for a certified copy from CNIPA to use as a trademark certificate in practice.

Design patent application in China

According to the Paris Convention, the applicant from the member country can enjoy 6 months priority period from the filing date. The design patent application in China doesn’t accept the substantive examination, so it can be approved in around 4 months after filing.
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Filing appeal for trademark review of refusal for international trademark application designating China

As the designated office, after making the refusal decision, CNIPA forwards it to WIPO to inform the applicant of the international trademark application. CNIPA accepts the deadline for filing such appeal is 30 days from the issue date of WIPO which is looser than a national trademark application. However, it’s also impossible to extend or restore if you missed the prescribed deadline.

Conventional patent application in China

According to the Paris Convention, the applicant from the member country can enjoy the 12 months priority period from the filing date for invention/utility model patent. The utility model patent doesn’t need to accept the substantive examination, so normally, it can be approved in around 4 months after filing.

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Filing appeal for trademark review of refusal for national trademark application

A refusal decision may come after the substantive examination of a trademark indicating the reason why the trademark cannot be registered in China. The most common reason is the existed same/similar trademarks. The applicant is allowed to file an appeal within 15 days of the receipt date of the notification before CNIPA by submitting his statement and/or evidences of use to prove the difference between the citation and present trademark application, or prove the present trademark has obtained certain reputation. The deadline for filing the appeal cannot be extended and is non-restorable.

National phase/stage entering application of PCT international application

The prescribed deadline for filing a national phase entering application in China is 30 months from the earliest priority deadline, and the applicant may have 2 months grace period if necessary. In recent years, we’ve helped the foreign applicants from worldwide filing hundreds of such applications. It’s worth mentioning that you can choose to file as invention patent or utility model patent in China when entering into national phase.

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Request to reduce the goods/services items for a trademark application

Although the Chinese trademark office doesn’t request to submit use evidence after grant, but the risk to be challenged is still existed due to the revocation and invalidation procedure. Hence, the applicant may choose to file such request to delete the goods/services items they are actually not in use.

Request to reissue a trademark certificate

The trademark holder can request to reissue a new trademark certificate once it lost which cost about 6 months to get the new one.

Filing request for trademark invalidation

Its only applies to the registered trademark with a period of five years after grant. The trademark reexamination board will make a decision within 12 months after receiving said request.

Filing an appeal for trademark review

This procedure applies to the appeal after receiving the decision for an opposition, revocation and invalidation. The deadline for filing an appeal is also 15 days of the receipt date of the decision which is non-extendable and restorable.

Filing request of revoking continuously three years non-use trademark registration

According to Chinese trademark Law Article 49, the registered trademark has not been used for a period greater than three years without any justifiable reasons, any organization or individual may request that the Trademark Office make a decision to cancel such registered trademark.

The copyright is born with the creation of the work, and the registration is a voluntary action by the copyrighter. The copyright registration can protect kinds of the works, for example, written works, oral works, musical, dramatic, cheoreographic and acrobatic works, works of the fine arts and architecture, photographic works, cinematographic works and works created by a process analogous to cinematography, graphic works etc.

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Computer software registration

The computer software registration is only for recording the code of computer programs and the related documents, the applicant can file parts of the code of the computer software to record. There is no substantive examination on the registration but only to record the information and documents submitted to CPCC.