Wang Peizhang, director of the Public Service Department of the National Intellectual Property Administration, introduced at the regular press conference on June 23rd that the CNIPA will continue to optimize the online application system for patents and trademarks. By the end of May, the online application rates for trademarks and patents had reached 99.45% and 99.43%, respectively. 

The optimization mainly covers the following aspects: 

(I) Shortened efficiency of review and examination

The whole process cycle of trademark registration in general had been reduced to 7 months, while the average review period of trademark objection and rejection review was reduced to 11 months and 5.5 months respectively. CNIPA aimed to fully implement the notification and commitment system for the examination and approval of the practice license of patent agencies and the registration of patent trademark pledge, with a significant decrease of materials required to be submitted. The online disclosure scope of administrative ruling documents was expanded to realize full incremental disclosure of patent reexamination invalidation and trademark objection review decision documents. In the first five months of this year, a total of 16,000 invalid patent reexamination decisions and 217,000 trademark documents were published. Recently, relevant policies have been introduced to automatically extend the expiration date of annual fee payment for eligible patents, and a green channel was opened for patent and trademark pledge registration to help enterprises to cope with the impact of the epidemic and ensure the smooth operation of market players. 

(II) Standardized and more convenient services

A total of 277 local trademark acceptance windows have been set up nationwide. E-certificate of patent and trademark was introduced to further reduce the time for the right holder to obtain the certificate. 

(III) Meet differentiated and diversified needs of innovative subjects

CNIPA issued the Measures for Quick Examination of Trademark Registration Applications (Trial), and improved the examination highway mechanism. By the end of May, a total of 149 trademarks had been examined through the highway system. The first five months of this year had seen a total of 2,918 patent remote trials, and the set up of five trademark roving review courts, as well as the completion of 41 trademark roving reviews. The pilot plan of shared patent evaluation reports on e-commerce platforms was also implemented with an aim to share more than 50,000 verification evaluation reports, and handle more than 900 disputes and controversy over rights filing.