Recently, the statistics from the Design Examination Department of SIPO show that up till August 15, 2015, SIPO accumulatively received over 10,000 applications for evaluation report on patent rights. As a beneficial supplement to the preliminary examination of design applications, evaluation report on patent rights effectively improved the stability of patent rights and were gradually accepted by the public.
Since July 2010 when SIPO started to accept applications for evaluation report on patent rights, the number of applications grew rapidly. There were respectively 33 applications in 2010, 390 applications in 2011 and 4052 applications in 2014. Up till August 15, 2015, 3311 applications for evaluation report on patent rights were filed, an increase of 53% as compared to the same period of the previous year.
It is noted that applications for evaluation report on patent rights mainly fell in the fields of housewares items, packaging, communications and transportation equipment. These are the product types which are closely related to people’s livelihood. Further, evaluation report on patent right also played a more and more important role in lawsuits, E-commerce and customs recordation.
