The WIPO Global Awards 2025 contest opened on January 15, with a call for applications from startups, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), university spinouts, and other smaller enterprises across various business sectors, including health, environment, creativity, agrifood, and information and communication technology (ICT). The application period ends on March 31, 2025.

An independent committee of experts will select ten winning enterprises, with the winners to be announced at an awards ceremony during the WIPO Assemblies in July 2025 at WIPO's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. This year, the program introduces a new feature: special recognition for winning enterprises led by women and youth entrepreneurs.

For more information and application guidelines, please refer to:           https://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2025/article_0001.html

(Source: website of the WIPO)

The IP5 Statistics Report 2023 is jointly produced by the five largest intellectual property (IP) offices (hereinafter referred to as the "IP5 Offices"), which consist of the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), along with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The main content of the report includes the following four parts: the first part is an introduction to the five offices, mainly introducing the latest development of the five offices, as well as relevant data statistics; the second part introduces global patent activities, including global patent applications for invention, authorizations, patent application flows among countries/regions, and family applications; the third part involves patent activities of the five offices, which, by comparing the patent application and authorization data of the five offices in 2022 and 2023, shows the latest patent activities of the five offices; and the fourth part is about the five offices and the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), which introduces the latest situation of the patent activities of the five offices using the PCT.

Attached: IP5 Statistics Report 2023 (English version)

(Source: website of the CNIPA)

The Belt and Road IP Cooperation (BRIPC) Pilot Program for Accelerated Patent Examination (hereinafter referred to as the "BRIPC Pilot Program") commenced on January 20, 2025, and runs for two years until January 19, 2027. Following the pilot program's launch, eligible applicants from participating countries can request accelerated examination with the CNIPA according to the Procedures to File a Request to the CNIPA under the BRIPC Pilot Program for Accelerated Patent Examination.

The BRIPC pilot program aims to provide faster patent examination of patent applications for eligible applicants from countries participating in the "Belt and Road Initiative" in China. The Turkish Patent and Trademark Office becomes the first participating office in this program according to the Letter of Intent for Cooperation on the BRIPC Pilot Program between the China National Intellectual Property Administration and the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office.

Read more: the BRIPC Pilot Program Guidelines

(Source: website of the CNIPA)

The report presents the main findings and special reports of this year's investigation, shows in detail the data of the last five consecutive years of investigation and the basic data of this year's national investigation, and incorporates the data of the pilot province's investigation for the first time. The China Patent Investigation Report has received widespread attention at home and abroad. The investigation findings have been cited by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and other organizations, and the investigation results have been reported multiple times by major media outlets, including People's Daily and Xinhua News Agency.

Attached: 2024 China Patent Investigation Report

(Source: website of the CNIPA)

Case Brief

The client, a company in Qingdao, is a high-tech enterprise specializing in providing safety devices and technical services for oil depots, petrol stations, and related fields. The company now holds several series of products, such as static alarms, leak detectors, liquid level meters, quantitative loading systems, oil vapor recovery online monitoring systems, vacuum pumps, oil-submerged pumps, and safety protection. In October 2021, the client launched a retractable grounding device at an exhibition and made sales to the public.

In this case, the patent belongs to a company in Beijing and is a patent for utility model that has exceeded its protection period. The company claimed that the company in Qingdao violated the provisions of the Chinese Patent Law by exploiting the patent involved during the protection period of the patent without authorization, so the company filed a lawsuit seeking the amount of compensation of 500,000 yuan, and requested the court to carry out the evidence preservation and on-site inspection regarding the products sued for infringement.

Entrusted by the company in Qingdao, Unitalen's attorney team actively prepared to respond to the lawsuit. Unitalen lawyers found that the company in Beijing had claimed rights against several other companies on the basis of the patent involved, which had exceeded the protection period. In the Evaluation Report of Utility Model Patent of the patent involved, it was clearly stated that "Claim 1 does not meet the conditions for grant of the patent right" and "Claim 1 does not involve an inventive step under Article 22.3 of the Chinese Patent Law". However, the plaintiff explicitly claimed only the right of Claim 1. Therefore, Unitalen lawyers considered that the plaintiff in this case was claiming a right to a claim that substantively does not involve an inventive step, and the core strategy for responding to this case was to file a request for invalidation against the patent involved.

Based on the existing evidence in the evaluation report, Unitalen lawyers fully conducted supplemental searches and obtained evidence, including several patent documents and public use. After close technical exchanges with the client, Unitalen lawyers determined the evidence combination strategy for the invalidation request and filed a request for invalidation with the CNIPA. After an oral hearing, the CNIPA ultimately made an invalidation decision, declaring that a plurality of claims of the patent involved, including Claim 1, were invalid.

As a result, the plaintiff was forced to withdraw the lawsuit as the basis for its rights no longer existed, and Unitalen won the lawsuit for its client.

Case Significance

Although anyone is free to implement the patent technology after the expiration of the patent right, the law does not lift the retroactive viability of the infringement behavior that occurred during the protection period of the patent right. Therefore, when confronted with the infringement lawsuit concerning the expired patent right, the enterprises should not lower their guard, and should entrust a professional attorney team to conduct a targeted search analysis as early as possible to file a request for invalidation against the patent, so as to fundamentally eliminate the risk of the lawsuit. In addition, the inspiration provided by this case lies in the fact that, while safeguarding the legitimate exercise of the intellectual property rights, enterprises should also prevent the abuse of intellectual property rights and eliminate the practices of appropriating technologies in the public field for their own use and taking advantage of the opportunity to make profits.

The authoritative international IP media, the World Trademark Review (WTR), recently released the 2025 edition of WTR 1000 Global Leading Trademark Firms. Unitalen Attorneys at Law, with its outstanding professional strength and high recognition in the industry, continued to be ranked among the Gold Firms in China, and was awarded as the "Gold Firm" in the field of trademark application and strategy and the "Silver Firm" in the field of trademark protection and litigation.

Meanwhile, Unitalen partners and attorneys, HUANG Ying, ZHAO Lei, and QIN Lili, won the WTR 1000 Recommended Individuals again with their exceptional service and excellent industry reputation.

On January 11-12, 2025, the "2025 Enterprise IP Strategy Forum and Annual Conference of In-house IP Managers" and the award ceremony were grandly held in Beijing. Unitalen continued to win the award and was awarded "Outstanding IP Service Teams 2024".

On January 4, 2025, the 2024 list of "50 Intellectual Property Lawyers Under the Age of 50" (U50) was ceremoniously released at the Asia IPR Talents Grand Ceremony hosted by IPR Daily. Unitalen partner, ZHAO Lei, attorney at law, was recognized honorably on the U50 list for his outstanding expertise and good reputation in the industry.