Recently State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) has announced a notice regarding the new measures to strengthen handling of patent ownership disputes. According to the notice, as a general rule, patent administrative offices shall limit the mediation period for settling patent ownership dispute cases within 2 months. For cases being too complicated to be settled within this time frame, extension shall be approved by the by the chief of the patent administrative offices, which, however, shall not exceed more than 1 month.

As stressed in the notice, for those cases suspended for examination at SIPO due to the ownership dispute, SIPO shall notify the concerned parties of the suspension and inform the same to the patent administrative office in charge of settling the ownership dispute. The patent administrative office shall, in return, send the enforcement document to SIPO within 5 days after concluding the case so as to terminate the suspension in time. 

In order to increase the transparency of legal enforcement and case handling, as well as to facilitate case update, the patent administrative offices responsible for the patent ownership dispute mediation shall publish related information within 20 workdays upon concluding of the case. The disclosed information shall be limited to case matter, case number, case filing date, names of both parties, case result (mediation agreement achieved or case dismissed) as well as closing date, while the mediation content and materials shall be kept confidential. The patent administrative offices shall publish the information on their official websites, bulletins, and periodicals easily accessible to the public.