Posts in China

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property held a hearing titled Foreign Threats to American Innovation and Economic Leadership, featuring testimony from private businesses on the myriad challenges facing American intellectual property (IP) owners in the face of illegal activities sponsored by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Along with consumer safety and national security risks, the day’s hearing featured discussion of several IP-related bills, some of which will be introduced into Congress in the coming days.

A group of Chinese companies struck out for a second time at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Monday when the court ruled they lacked foreign sovereign immunity and therefore are not shielded from an indictment for economic espionage in connection with their alleged efforts to steal trade secrets from E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (DuPont).

As tariffs and the trade war with China intensify, companies that have long relied on Chinese manufacturing are increasingly exploring alternatives across Asia—with Vietnam emerging as a top contender. The country offers a compelling combination of lower labor costs, strategic trade agreements such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) , the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), and  Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and a rapidly improving infrastructure that supports large-scale production and export.

Yesterday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center published the 2025 International IP Index, the Chamber’s annual assessment of legal frameworks for intellectual property (IP) protections in countries across the globe. While this year’s IP Index marked little movement among the top nations for IP legal frameworks, leaving the United States as the top nation overall for yet another year, stronger IP protections in Middle Eastern countries and efforts to weaken IP protections for pharmaceuticals in the EU and U.S. were among the key findings driving changes to this year’s report.

With Donald J. Trump back in the White House, intellectual property (IP) and innovation policy are poised for significant shifts. During IPWatchdog LIVE 2025, an expert panel titled “Inside the Beltway: The Future of IP and Innovation Policy,” featuring retired Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) Paul Michel, U.S. House Judiciary Chief Counsel for IP J. John Lee, Senate IP Director Peter-Anthony Pappas, and public policy expert Patrick Kilbride discussed what lies ahead for patent law, legislative reforms, and America’s ability to compete in a rapidly changing global landscape.

Many people know about trademark filings, but have you ever heard about trademark refilings? Before 2023, registering a trademark in China often involved filing several iterations of the same trademark application consecutively (so-called “refilings” of the original mark) before one of the marks proceeded to registration. This was often quite frustrating for those not used to the practice. To add to this headache, many brand owners have been told they should refile a trademark after it has already registered. As a result, it isn’t unheard of to have 5-10 filings for the same mark (and the costs definitely add up).

The U.S. Senate held a nomination hearing to vet Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, this past week. While much of the hearing focused on issues outside of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Lutnick touched on several key points relevant to the intellectual property system.

Last week, patent data tracking firm IFI CLAIMS published its annual rankings of the Top 50 U.S. Patent Assignees and the Top 10 Fastest Growing Technologies of 2024, providing a snapshot of the world’s most innovative companies and rapidly advancing tech sectors by analyzing U.S. patent grants totals over the last calendar year. Although U.S. patent grants increased overall last year, pointing to the strength of the domestic market, foreign economic rival China continued to make significant gains in acquiring U.S. patents.

The past year was marked by change around the world, from significant geopolitical events and elections with far-reaching implications to the dramatic acceleration of AI adoption, which is quickly changing many aspects of how we live and work. Standard Essential Patent (SEP) licensing was no exception, as the space saw a number of new trends and shifts that may have an impact for a long time to come.

The position of director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is one of the most critical positions in the U.S. government. This is especially true if a key objective is to outcompete America’s most adversarial competitors (and trading partners) such as China. That’s why the reported leading candidate for USPTO director raises so many cockles and concerns. For America to out-innovate China, the incoming Trump administration’s USPTO director must come from the same cloth as the first Trump term’s USPTO director, Andrei Iancu. That is, he or she must meet and exceed such qualifications as being a patent attorney and having sufficient years of practicing patent law. Iancu set a very high bar. His superior level of excellence and dedication leading this agency didn’t escape notice, as these letters demonstrate.

The doctrine of exhaustion, also known as the first-sale doctrine, is a cornerstone of intellectual property (IP) law. By limiting the control that IP holders can exert over their goods after the first authorized sale, this principle ensures that exclusive rights do not unnecessarily hinder competition or consumer access. Despite the existence of numerous international agreements on intellectual property, such as the TRIPS Agreement, IP rights protection and enforcement still largely operate at the national level. Countries retain the flexibility to implement their own IP laws and regulations based on their domestic priorities, economic policies, and legal traditions.

China is more relevant than ever before and should drive much of what Trump 2.0 does on patents and critical technologies such as EVs, batteries and communications, all crucial to America’s economic and national security. This op-ed follows up on my coverage of then candidate Trump in 2016, which focused on his intersection of China and patents.

Today, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published its annual World Intellectual Property Indicators Report, providing a snapshot of IP filing activities across the globe during 2023. Among the report’s key findings is that global patent filing activity increased for the fourth straight year, thanks in large part to continued growth in China and a strong showing from India, which placed among the top ten nations for patents, trademarks and industrial designs. This year’s report also underscored the importance of Asian IP filing offices, which received two-thirds of all patent applications filed in 2023.

There are two distinct procedures available to parties for resolving patent infringement matters in China: an administrative procedure before the IP office and a civil procedure before the courts. With the ongoing efforts of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), the regulation of patent infringement administrative procedures has become more comprehensive.