After attracting headlines for good and bad reasons in 2009, China’s IP system had a quieter 2010. There was no litigation to rival that of Chint v Schneider and no new legislation to match the third amendment to the Patent Law. The implementing regulations for that amendment have so far caused few problems for patent owners. Worries about the length of time it would take SIPO to do a secrecy examination for foreign filings have so far proved unfounded, with a response time of two to three weeks being the norm. Companies doing R&D in China remain concerned about how the inventor remuneration policies will be interpreted by the courts, but no cases have emerged of yet. IP practitioners are still waiting for the first case to test the IP provisions of the Anti-Monopoly Law.
