The General Office of the China National Intellectual Property Administration ("CNIPA") has recently issued the Work Plan for Tightening Regulation of Patent Agency (the "Plan").
The Plan clearly states that relevant departments of the CNIPA will be responsible for making overall arrangements for the regulation of patent agency, providing better guidance and strengthening supervision, and arranging and launching special rectification programs in the field of patent agency. They will also take charge of establishing a credit-based regulation system for patent agency, a work mechanism for the "internet plus regulation" initiative, and an information platform, adopting and publishing the lists of entities with unusual business conditions and discreditable acts, and imposing penalties against serious violations in a timely manner. Also, the Plan requires that an intensive "Blue Sky" special rectification program will be launched in the patent agency sector during the period between April and November in 2019 and in 2020. Efforts will be made to oversee key subjects, which means that agencies placed on the list of entities with unusual business conditions or on the list of entities with serious violations will be closely watched. Moreover, the Plan calls for instituting the assessment information disclosure system and the assessment system for patent agency, to evaluate practices of patent agencies and patent attorneys. In addition, the "internet plus regulation" system will be developed for the intellectual property service sector.