05/08/2020

On 30 July 2020, SAC initiated and published two serial national standard projects in the field of intellectual property, namely: (i) the Management Specifications for Intellectual Property Rights Protection on E-commerce Platforms, and (ii) the Patent Navigation Guide.

  • Management Specifications for Intellectual Property Rights Protection on E-commerce Platforms.

China’s e-commerce sector is the biggest in the world in terms of volume and value of transactions. However, piracy remains a rampant issue on all e-commerce platforms, where pirate editions of books, games, software, and video/audio products can frequently be found, resulting in severe IPR infringements leading to market disruptions. Indeed, in e-commerce environments – where the physical scope of IPR protection is unclear – intellectual achievements as knowledge assets are more susceptible to piracy and counterfeiting, and it is more difficult for the infringed party to file complaints and effectively enforce its rights.

In order to address this issue, an agreed IPR protection framework stipulating the technical requirements for IPR protection processes should be established and observed by e-commerce stakeholders, including e-commerce platforms, merchants, consumers and public regulators. Therefore, in November 2019, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council proposed, in the Opinions on the Intensified Protection of Intellectual Property Rights, to formulate standards for the management and protection of IPR on e-commerce platforms.

In this context, and also in view of the fact that neither in China nor abroad there are standards on IPR protection and management on e-commerce platforms that can be used as reference, SAC launched this new project. The Management Specifications for Intellectual Property Rights Protection on E-commerce Platforms will stipulate the general requirements for IPR protection that will apply to the construction, operation and management of e-commerce platforms. It will also provide technical requirements for the operation of e-commerce merchants.

  • Serial Standard: the Patent Navigation Guide.

The Patent Navigation Guide will be comprised of eight parts: general principles for patent navigation, six patent navigation standards for specific areas (regional planning, industrial planning, enterprise management, R&D activities, standard application, and talent management), and service requirements for patent navigation.

Patent navigation refers to the deep integration of patents into the innovation of industrial technologies, products, organisations and business models – based on the effective utilisation of patent information resources and patent analysis. It is an exploratory work that can guide and support balanced development among various industries. The development of the serial standard aims to facilitate sharing, intensive integration, collaborative development and efficient utilisation of production factors such as talents, technologies and capital; it also aims to speed up the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and to raise the operational level and innovation efficiency of industries.

The launch of the serial standard project is grounded on strong policy background and support. In December 2015, the State Council’s Several Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of a Powerful Country with Intellectual Property Rights under the New Situation first called for the establishment of a work mechanism for the development of the patent navigation industry. In February 2020, the State Council further issued the Notice on Promoting the Third Batch of Reform Measures to Support Innovation, requiring the promotion and divulgation of decision-making mechanisms for patent navigation for emerging industries, based on industrial data and patent data.

At the operational level, the National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) has formulated a series of guidelines and specifications to guide patent navigation work, including:

  • The Patent Navigation Pilot Project Workbook (First Edition), published in September 2013: it provides an operational guide for industrial patent analysis, IP appraisal for major economic and technological activities, and patent reserve and operation;
  • The Guidelines for the Implementation of Industrial Planning Patent Navigation Projects (Provisional), published in July 2015: it reviews the management methods of industrial planning patent navigation projects, including organisational models, process management and working mechanisms. It also systematically introduces the contents and results of the analysis of three basic project stages, aiming at standardising and guiding industrial patent navigation work;
  • The Guidelines for the Implementation of Enterprise Operation Patent Navigation, published in December 2016: it introduces the main principles, key contents and analysis modules of enterprise operation patent navigation projects, aimed at standardising and guiding enterprise patent navigation work;
  • The Guidelines for the Implementation of Patent Navigation for the Evaluation of Regional Innovation Resources; the Management Specifications for the Regional Distribution of Intellectual Property Rights; the Technical Manual for the Regional Distribution of Intellectual Property Rights; and the Guide for the Compilation of Resource Allocation-oriented Catalogue with Intellectual Property at the Core –formulated between 2016 and 2018: they introduce the general principles, working methods and operational procedures of regional patent navigation projects, aimed at standardising and guiding relevant work.

These standards are all formulated by SAC/TC554 (National Technical Committee for the Standardization of Knowledge Management), and are under the management of CNIPA.