The revised “Rules of the State Intellectual Property Office on Administrative Reconsideration” ( “AR”) has been promulgated

The amended “AR” comes into force on 1st Sep. 2012.

Compared with the original “AR” came into force on 1st Sep. 2002, the biggest highlights of the revised “AR” is that the scope of the administrativeacts which can be applied for administrative reconsideration is amended from 19 specific administrativeacts and 1 miscellaneous provision to 4 categories of administrativeacts and 1 miscellaneousprovision, which are as follows:

(1)refuse to accept the specific administrativeacts conducted by the State Intellectual Property Office(SIPO) concerning the application of patent, patent right;

(2)refuse to accept the specific administrative acts conducted by SIPO concerning the application of Layout-Designsfor Integrated Circuits, right of layout-design;

(3)refuse to accept the decision made by SIPO’s Re-exam Dept. concerning patent’s re – examination, invalid procedure;
(4)refuse to accept the specific administrative acts conducted by SIPO concerning the management of patent commissioning;

(5)consider the other specific administrative acts conducted by SIPO infringing upon their legitimaterightsand interests.

In order to follow the trend that the scope of the IP administrativeacts turns larger and larger, SIPO amended AR. In the past, if the specific administrative act could not be confirmed as the 19 specific administrative acts stipulated in the original AR, the parties involved could hardly prove that this act belonged to the miscellaneous provision, and the parties involved could not claim for their right, but since the revised version comes into force, the parties involved can protect their rightsmore effectively.