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The China Nantong (Home Textiles) Intellectual Property Rights Protection Center in Nantong in East China's Jiangsu province is designated as the only pilot for pre-audit of national patent evaluation reports by the China National Intellectual Property Administration. [Photo/ntfabu.com]

The China National Intellectual Property Administration, or CNIPA, recently issued a document to designate the China Nantong (Home Textiles) Intellectual Property Rights Protection Center as a pilot for pre-auditing of national patent evaluation reports.

It is the first and only home textiles IPR rapid protection center approved by the CNIPA that focuses on rapid licensing of home textile fabric design patents.

Design patents are generally considered unstable since they can be granted without substantial examination. Obtaining the Patent Evaluation Report issued by the CNIPA means that those patents acquire authoritative approval once again with greatly improved stability and value.

Therefore, it is necessary to provide a patent evaluation report in a patent infringement dispute.

Under the leadership of the Party committee and government of Chuanjiang town in Nantong's Tongzhou district, the work of patent evaluation report pre-auditing was pushed forward in the home textiles IPR protection center. It will lead to rapid response and reduce the pre-audit period from three months to 15 working days. The corresponding patent infringement dispute processing will also be shortened by 75 days on average.

Last year, the center accepted 2,067 design patent applications, 1,143 of which were expedited and 1,140 were authorized, with an authorization rate of 99.7 percent. It accepted 503 complaints of infringement of design patents, all of which were settled through mediation.

Chen Qian, director of the center, said the China Nantong (Home Textiles) Intellectual Property Rights Protection Center will integrate IP with industrial design, creative services and brand construction of the home textile industry, and form an institutional system for the creation, application and protection of patent, copyright and trademark rights by virtue of being the national pilot.