Peer to peer exchanges and study visit to Sweden, Finland and Belgium with the Legislative Affairs Commission on the reform of Patent and Unfair Competition Laws

Between May 9 and 17, 2016 IP Key organised a set of peer to peer exchanges for a delegation of 12 officials of the Legislative Affairs Commission at the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (in short, LAC), that traveled to Belgium, Finland and Sweden.

The Chinese official delegation was led by the Director of the Civil Law Department and vice-headed by the Director of the Economic Law Department of the LAC.

Several key policy legislative issues in the ongoing workings of revision to the Chinese Patent and Anti-Unfair Competition Laws were discussed with the European Commission in Brussels. The LAC also engaged in technical discussions with European IP experts thanks to the support of the EUIPO, the Finnish and Swedish IP Office and Associations of IP attorneys, the Swedish and EU Parliaments.

The meetings focused, in particular, on the patent side:

·          specialised IP Courts

·          the workings for the establishment of a Unitary Patent Court system in Europe

·          standard-essential patents

·          legal grounds for reviewing Patent Office decisions and for invalidating patents: grounds ex parte and ex officio, invalidations at Patent Office and at Courts

·          liabilities of internet intermediaries (not only ISPs) and remedies particularly in case of infringement of designs and patents on e-commerce

·          real impact on innovation of policies for encouraging patenting

·          protection of designs

·          award of damages: criteria for calculation and statutory damages, punitive damages

and on the anti-unfair competition law side:

·          definition of “commercial ethics”

·          protection of trade secrets

·          slavish imitation of a third party’s product, service or initiative

·          protection of “trade dress”

·          abuses on indications of geographical origin, when these can mislead consumers with regards to essential characteristics/features of the product

·          unfair competition caused by the conflicts between trademarks and company names/other trade business indicators.

IP Key is once again grateful to the LAC for the support and engagement, as well as for the professional commitment before and during the mission, which further helped nurture a long standing cooperation between EU and China on fundamental IP legislative reforms.For more information on this activity contact Davide Follador davide.follador@ipkey.org, for general information on IP Key please contact jaspal.channa@ipkey.org.