The China National Intellectual Property Administration ("CNIPA") has recently issued the Administrative Measures for Lists of Seriously Dishonest Parties Subject to Joint Punishment in the Patent Sector (for Trial Implementation) (the "Measures") which will be effective from December 1, 2019.
According to the Measures, joint punishment will target parties performing any of six types of seriously discreditable acts in the patent sector, including repeated patent infringement and the refusal to execute the relevant decisions according to law. Meanwhile, the Measures provide for the methods for identifying each type of the aforesaid seriously discreditable acts. For example, "the refusal to execute an effective decision of administrative adjudication on patent infringement or an effective decision of administrative punishment on patent counterfeiting, and the acts to impede the work of intellectual property regulators or patent law enforcement agencies on lawful investigations to collect evidence, if considered serious, will be identified as the refusal to execute the relevant decisions according to law". Moreover, the Measures note that a party that has been added to the list of parties subject to joint punishment for over a year, may file a written application for credit repair to the department that added it to the list, provided that it has taken the initiative to correct its dishonest acts and eliminate the negative social impacts it causes.