The Fourth Amendment to the Patent Law

With the last changes to the Patent Law taking place in 2008, the 12-year gap between amendments runs longer than for other intellectual property statutes

On Oct. 17, 2020, the long-awaited Decision on Amending the PRC Patent Law (关于修改《中华人民共和国专利法》的决定) (the Fourth Patent Law Amendment) was passed by the 22nd session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress and will become effective on June 1, 2021.  With the last changes to the Patent Law (专利法) taking place in 2008, the 12-year gap between amendments runs longer than for other intellectual property statutes.  The Fourth Patent Law Amendment brings significant changes over an extensive range of issues, resulting from the changing economic landscape and trade disputes particularly with the United States. Overall, the Fourth Patent Law Amendment attempts to offer strong patent protection for the patentees, strike a balance between innovators and generics in the drug industry, and deter abuse of patent rights.

A linkage system between a patent dispute and a regulatory drug approval is important to achieve the government's policy goals of encouraging innovation for the industry and maintaining affordability of the drugs