The amended Regulations of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Patent, as adopted at the 29th session of the Standing Committee of the 11th People's Congress of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on July 26th, shall come into force on September 1st, 2012.
In response to the existing problems and requests in dealing with issues on patent in the region, the amended Regulations, in addition to patent protection, mainly focus on patent promotion and administration.
A chapter on stimulating creations and innovations, which requires departments concerned to allocate monetary awards to creators and specifies patent subsidizing and awarding systems, is supplemented in the Regulations.
The Regulations prepare measures to increase financial investment and stimulate inventions in terms of fives aspects including assisting projects, establishing patent rewards and raising remuneration.
A patent early warning system shall be created by local government departments to oversee the development trend of patent at home and abroad in key regions, industries and technological areas.
In a bid to make law enforcement more effective, the Regulations specify and standardize six approaches to identify and stop patent infringements.
The Regulations stipulate that a person who is accused of counterfeiting patent shall bear civil liabilities in accordance with laws concerned. Besides, the illegal income, if there is any, shall be confiscated by patent authorities and the person may be imposed on a penalty of no more than four times of such illegal income; otherwise, a penalty of 100,000 yuan at most may be imposed; in serious cases, a penalty of not less than 100,000 yuan but not more than 200,000 yuan may by imposed.
The Regulations make clear the liability of exhibition organizers, stipulating that if an organizer of an exhibition, a promotion or a trade fair allows a product or technology to be displayed in the exhibition, promotion or trade fair in the name of a patented product or technology without reviewing patent documents of the product or technology, patent authorities concerned shall order such an organizer to rectify the error and may impose a fine of no more than 10,000 yuan on the organizer.
The Regulations also stipulate that a person, who intends to introduce a product with patent marks into circulation units such as shopping malls and supermarkets, shall offer valid patent certifications including a copy of patent register or a patent license contract to those units; otherwise, those units shall not provide any service to the person or the product.
(Source: IPR in China)
