The China National Intellectual Property Administration ("CNIPA") has recently issued the Announcement on Altering the Business Seals and Relevant Forms and Documents (the "Announcement").
According to the Announcement, reviews of patents and trademarks will be conducted in the CNIPA's name, after the institutional reshuffle, and names of the previous Patent Reexamination Board, the former Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the Trademark Review Committee and the Cooperation Center for Trademark Examination have fallen into disuse. The Announcement also reads that, business seals previously used by the previous Patent Reexamination Board, the former Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the Trademark Review Committee and the Cooperation Center for Trademark Examination will be no longer used after the institutional reshuffle, and instead, a set of new business seals will be introduced and put into use in a uniform manner. Each new business seal will indicate the name of the CNIPA plus a particular type of business, and the list of changes to business seals could be found in the Appendix I to the Announcement. Furthermore, the Announcement clearly states that, the new business seals and relevant application forms/documents will be put into use as from April 1, 2019, and previous business seals and application forms/documents will be in disuse from then onwards.