To further strengthen the one-stop intellectual property rights (IPR) protection services of IPR protection centers covering rapid patent examination, confirmation, and protection, and implement the requirements of the Leading Party Members’ Group of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) of the whole-chain expansion from rapid examination to invalidation, reexamination, confirmation, and protection, CNIPA recently launched a pilot project of the multi-mode trial of patent reexamination and invalidation cases to promote the expansion of rapid patent rights confirmation.

China (Beijing), China (Pudong), China (Nanjing), and China (Zhejiang) Intellectual Property Protection Centers will undertake the pilot work. During the one-year pilot period, prioritized examination channels for patent reexamination and invalidation cases will be opened, and judicial hearings will be conducted via remote video links for invalidation cases. In addition, efforts will be made to promote the joint trial of patent confirmation cases and administrative adjudication cases.

Steady efforts have been made to advance the rapid patent confirmation, a key business of IPR protection centers to be expanded. In the early stage, an evaluation report pilot of utility model and design patent rights has been carried out in some IPR protection centers. Next, CNIPA will further expand the business functions of IPR protection centers, reinforce the whole-chain protection capabilities, and step up efforts to build a versatile talent team, so as to better support the creation of a favorable business environment and serve the high-quality economic development.