Chofn IP, China’s only listed intellectual property agency, on Feb. 9 released a report analyzing the 5,240 requests for trials for invalidation filed against patent owners at the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) in 2021.

By patent type, utility model patent invalidation requests were the biggest family, followed by design patent invalidation requests and invention patent invalidation requests.

By technological category, invalidation requests filed on patents covering medicine, communications, and electricity constituted the biggest camp. By class of design, invalidation requests filed on patents covering packaging and containers for goods and lights were the two biggest families.

Top 10 parties filing requests for trials for invalidation were Guo Ce (郭策), Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp., Ltd. (OPPO广东移动通信有限公司), Hunan Bothink Cloud Building Integrated Service Platform Co., Ltd. (湖南宝家云建筑工程管理有限公司), etc.

Top 10 owners of patents subject to invalidation proceedings were INA Intelligent Technology (Zhejiang) Co., Ltd. (浙江衣拿智能科技股份有限公司), Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (三菱电机株式会社), Fujian Chaota Shoes Co., Ltd. (福建潮踏鞋业有限公司), etc.

4,756 requests for trials for invalidation were filed against Chinese patent owners, accounting for 90.8% of the 5,240 requests in total. The top 3 provinces patent owners came from were Guangdong province, Zhejiang province, and Jiangsu province.

Of the 5,240 requests, 484 requests for trials for invalidation were filed against patent owners from foreign countries led by Japan, the US, and Germany.

The examination periods of patent invalidation cases ranged from 5 to 8 months.

Most of all patents invaliated maintained validity of 2 years between the date of the patent grant and that of the patent invalidation, followed by patents invalidated maintaining validity of 3 years. Very few patents invalidated maintained validity of years more than 3 years.

Full invalidation decisions were handed down by the CNIPA in 48.7% of the 5,240 patent invalidation cases, with 58.4% of the patents invalidated being design patents, 48.9% utility model patents, and 31.6% invention patents.

Partial invalidation decisions were handed down by the CNIPA in 14.8% of the 5,240 patent invalidation cases, with 22.6% of the patents invalidated were design patents and 23.6% utility model patents.

36.5% of the 5,240 patent invalidation requests were dimissed, with 41.6% of the patent invalidation requests being design patents, 28.5% utility model patents, and 44.8% invention patents.

The lack of novelty and non-obviousness were the most common grounds for fully invalidating design patents, and the lack of inventiveness the most common ground for fully invalidating utility model patents and invention patents.

Top 10 law firms or agencies representing patent invalidation cases were King & Wood Mallesons (北京金杜律师事务所), Chaocheng Law Firm (北京超成律师事务所), Scihead Intellectual Property (广州三环专利商标代理有限公司), ect.

The full text of the report is available here.