China's New Layout-Design Regime Takes Shape: CNIPA Issues New Implementing Rules, Transitional Measures and an Examination and Adjudication Guide
On 30 September the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released in one go three implementing documents for the new layout-design regime for integrated circuits: new Implementing Rules of the Regulations on the Protection of Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits (CNIPA Order No. 86), Transitional Measures on examination matters following the revised Regulations (Announcement No. 694) and a revised Guide to Examination and Administrative Adjudication of Layout Designs (Announcement No. 695). The Transitional Measures take effect on 15 October, the same day as the revised Regulations, while the new Rules and the new Guide take effect on 30 October, repealing the 2001 Rules (Order No. 11) and the 2019 trial Guide to Examination and Enforcement.
The new Rules have 7 chapters and 56 articles and add a chapter on procedures for exercising the exclusive right: the originality declaration must identify the original parts, numbering several parts in sequence with reasons for each and locating them in the copies or drawings; third parties may ask CNIPA to revoke a registration by filing a request and evidence matched to each ground, and in revocation the owner may only give up, not add or change, the original parts claimed.
Assignment registration, licence contract recordal and pledge registration require standard forms and written contracts, with a technology export licence or technology export contract registration certificate for assignments or licences to foreign parties; CNIPA may handle administrative adjudication of infringement disputes on request and mediate damages, the requester must specify the original parts relied on and may change them only until the close of oral argument.
The Transitional Measures draw the line between the old and revised Regulations at a filing date of 15 October, while allowing registrations filed earlier to be challenged by revocation under the revised Regulations, to have rights restored and to be recorded for licences and pledges; the new Guide is organised in four parts, registration examination, reexamination and revocation, administrative adjudication, and licences and pledges, with a chapter on infringement assessment stating that the scope of review follows the original parts claimed and that design ideas and functional wording do not limit the scope of protection.
This is the clearest implementation step in the current layout-design reform: after the Regulations were revised in July and the draft Rules and Guide went to consultation in August, the operational rules for filing, revocation, restoration, licence recordal, pledges and administrative adjudication are now in place together, and the originality declaration runs through registration, revocation and infringement comparison as the core of the scope of the right.
J&C recommends that chip design companies and agents plan around two dates: prepare applications filed from 15 October under the revised Regulations, numbering each original part in the declaration, marking its area and giving reasons; from 30 October handle licences, pledges and assignments with the new forms and written contracts, obtaining technology export documents early for foreign deals; and review existing registrations to check whether their declarations can support enforcement, preparing evidence for revocation or adjudication where needed.
Source: www.cnipa.gov.cn | www.cnipa.gov.cn | www.cnipa.gov.cn | www.cnipa.gov.cn
