While AIA is still being absorbed, the US Congress has taken steps toward a new wave of changes. The new reformed bill, entitled the STRONG Patents Act of 2015, has been introduced by U.S. Senators Chris Coons, Dick Durbin, and Mazie Hirono. The bill will address various aspects of post-grant practice and patent litigation, among other things.
Beijing Intellectual Property Court was establishment in November 2014 and has been hearing cases involving patent infringements, computer software piracy, technical secret theft and well-known trademark infringement.
Shortly thereafter, the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court was established in December, 2014.
The Shanghai IP Court was also recently established sharing the same location as the Third Intermediate People’s Court of Shanghai.
All three courts appear to be quite busy already, hearing hundreds of cases.
According to the latest statistics released by the State Intellectual Property Office, 928,000 patent applications for inventions were received in 2014. This large number of applications virtually ensures that the IP court structure will have to continue to grow.