Annual Technical Report on Industrial Design Information Activities in 2022 submitted by China National Intellectual Property Administration

Please provide links to your website where the requested information can be found in English, French, or Spanish.  Alternately, you may provide text responses instead of URLs if desired.  If the information is not available on your website in an ATR language, then please provide text.

URLs in responses should meet the following requirements:

• Link to pages with information in English, Spanish, or French
• The URL will remain stable over time (at least three years, preferably more)
• Goes to the specific information requested, not to a general homepage
• If the URL goes to a long PDF document such as an annual report, please indicate which sections or pages contain relevant information.
• Provide additional instructions for using the URL if needed. For instance, if the page requires the user to login first, or if the requested information requires selecting certain options or filters on the page that can not be included in the URL. 

The term "industrial designs" covers industrial designs and models.

Offices which issue design patents should report their design patent information activities in this series of Annual Technical Reports.

I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Information on the following topics is desired:

1. Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of industrial design information activities and expected time frames for their realization
2. New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies(plans) mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
3. Main areas of industrial design information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
4. Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants (registrations) with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
5. Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.

In October 2021, The State Council issued the 14th Five-Year National Plan for the Protection and Application of Intellectual Property, which clearly put forward the working requirements of strengthening the application of intelligent technology, improving examination efficiency and shortening the examination period. Based on the plan, in the area of industrial design informatization, CNIPA’s tasks during the "14th Five Years" mainly include: accelerating the improvement of infrastructure,  supporting the reliable and flexible deployment of IT applications; comprehensively strengthening data resource guarantee, enabling the intelligent development of IT system, continuing optimizing system construction, supporting to carry out business intelligently and conveniently, improving the management of information-based services and make more use of the IT efficiency.

From 2022 to early 2023, CNIPA has completed IT system upgrading and officially put it online. The intelligent, informational and convenient level of examiners’ search and examination work are improved, and the public services are more convenient and efficient.

Annual report: https://english.cnipa.gov.cn/col/col1336/index.html  

News page: https://english.cnipa.gov.cn/col/col1340/index.html

Statistics: https://english.cnipa.gov.cn/col/col3050/index.html

II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Information on the following topics is desired:

1. Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) - URLs
2. Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
3. Classification and reclassification activities; classification system used, e.g., International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification), other classification
4. Other activities

The patent business system of CNIPA has been officially launched. Applicants can submit electronic design applications and obtain relevant help documents via the system at CNIPA official website. Applicants can obtain paper application form templates from CNIPA official website.

The general public can use China and Global Patent Examination information Inquiry system (https://cpquery.cponline.cnipa.gov.cn) to access to the design application data including basic information, examination information, fee information, reexamination & invalidation information, register information, family patent. etc. There are eight-language environments provided in the system.

III. SOURCES OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE

Information on the following topics is desired:

1. Main types of publications in the field of industrial design information, outline of the content (industrial design applications, design patents, registrations, etc.) and medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)
2. Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URL), etc.
3. Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external documentation and databases
4. Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) and services available to external users; conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)

5. Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)

6. Other sources

No publication information for design.

The types of design announcement include: Bibliographic items, brief description and designated view of designs, corrected bibliographic items, brief description and designated view, and all graphics or offprint copies of designs(including corrections), and transaction data.

Release frequency: twice a week in CNIPA official website: "China Patent Announcement - Patent Bulletin inquiry" .

CNIPA has the industrial design search system specially for the internal use of examiners, including the search database for industrial designs. The database covers the industrial design data of China since 1985 and the design data obtained from other countries, regions or organizations. The text is in xml format while drawings are in tif or jpeg format.

The information services provided to the public include: 1. Patent Search and Analysis System, which provides patent search and analysis services free of charge and covers patent data worldwide. System address https://pss-system.cponline.cnipa.gov.cn 2, Chinese and Global Patent Examination Information Inquery system, provide free patent search service. System address is https://cpquery.cponline.cnipa.gov.cn.

The legal status information available to the examiners comes from the data of China Patent Affairs Bulletin, which has been standardized and processed in xml format, covering the data of China Patent Affairs Bulletin since 1985. Examiners can search a specific case and inquire its legal status by application number or public number in the search system.

IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Information on the following topics is desired:

1. Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements
2. Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
3. Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
4. Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
5. Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
6. Other matters

Our internal examination system covers all types of business including invention, utility model, industrial design, PCT and Hague, and runs through the whole process of application, reception, examination, reexamination and invalidation. Supported by cloud computing hardware architecture, it organically combines cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence and other information technologies with examination business scenarios. By adopting an integrated platform, it provides users with unified account, unified entrance, unified platform and unified interface style. With the system assistance, examiners can focus better on the core work which reflects examination wisdom, through the deepening of semantic analysis, image recognition, machine translation and other artificial intelligence technology, by bringing in various kinds of intelligent auxiliary engines such as examination, writing, inspection, and with more intelligent supporting tools. It has carried out unified planning and governance for massive and dispersed multi-source heterogeneous data. Based on integrated databases, it provides more accurate decision support for business management through big data analysis.

CNIPA has the industrial design search system specially for the internal use of examiners, including the design search database. The database covers the industrial design data of China since 1985 and design data obtained from other countries, regions or organizations. The text is in xml format while drawings are in tif or jpeg format. Examiners can search by drawings, application number, classification number, etc.

V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION

Information on the following topics is desired:

1. Office's library (if deals with industrial design information): equipment, collection management, network of libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign libraries
2. Publications related to different business procedures and industrial design information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.

3. Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc.

4. Education and training: training courses, e learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
5. Other activities

The applicant can access the information of his/her own applications in different business stages through the CNIPA patent business system, and can also access the information of others' applications through Patent Search and Analysis System and the China and Global Patent Examination Information Inquiry system.

VI.INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION

Information on the following topics is desired:

1. International exchange of industrial design information in machine-readable form (e.g., Official Gazettes)
2. Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to industrial design information

3. Assistance to developing countries

4. Other activities

The data and document interaction of Hague business between CNIPA and WIPO is carried out in the way of machine-to-machine.

VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS