In a blog post published in February 2021 (here), we addressed regulatory initiatives from the Chinese government aimed at moving China from a country dependent on "imported" patents (i.e., patents filed by foreign entities) to a country with great autochthone creativity. The initiatives were intended to reduce or eliminate fraudulent and low-quality patent applications and patent subsidies, while enhancing the quality of the patent filings.

Last week, I was cited together with other China IP specialists by Sukanya Sarkar of Managing IP in an article reporting on these reforms and China's pledge to eliminate patent subsidies and crack down on low quality patents (See here). I praised the reform and the apparent results, but also pointed out that the reform should be completed by addressing the parallel and related issue of patent squatting.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.