Starting from February 2015, the newly amended Several Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Issues Relating to Application of Law to Adjudication of Cases of Patent Disputes (hereinafter the provisions) came into force. The major change relates to the patent evaluation report, calculation of damages in order to comply with the current patent law and judicial interpretations.
Under the current Chinese patent law, the act of offer for sale concerning the design patent products is considered patent infringement. The provisions provide that litigation case can be either heard by the court where such act of offer for sale takes place or where the infringer resides.
In order to comply with the Article 59 of the current patent law, the scope of protection shall be defined to cover all technical features as claimed. The wording of necessary technical features was removed.
With regard to the damages, it will be calculated by referring to the Article 65 of the patent law and by taking into account the types of patents and infringement.
The provisions further provide for the legal consequences if the plaintiff does not provide the patent evaluation report.
