▍ Patent practice - patent invalidation proceeding in China

Written by Allen G. Zhou | Sep 25 2022

In China, a patent invalidation proceeding is often employed in patent infringement dispute cases. If the party accused of infringement wants to make a non-infringement defense, it can either argue that its product does not fall into the scope of the cited patent, or prove that the patent is invalid through the invalidation proceeding.

The importance of patent invalidation is not only reflected in the litigation process, but also in the overall IP rights enforcement strategy. Nowadays, many international companies apply for a large number of patents to gain monopoly and block competitors. In order to win the patent wars, in addition to speeding up independent innovation and applying for patent applications of its own, a company should also study its competitors' patents carefully, as some of those may be unstable, and thus can be invalidated.

Also, a company should conduct a Freedom-to-Operate (FTO) search before starting a business development plan and launching a product in the country of interest to ensure that the product will not infringe any patent. If the result is negative, but the business development plan is crucial to the company, the company can consider filing invalidation requests against those patents involved.

Patent invalidation proceeding has multiple stages and steps. We generated the diagram below to introduce the whole process of patent invalidation proceedings in China. Hopefully, it can help you to have a rough and basic understanding of the procedure.

Should you have any questions regarding Chinese IP practices, please don’t hesitate to contact us.