Meaning
Administrative and judicial classification of patent applications filed without legitimate inventorship or genuine operational intent. Under Chinese patent law, bad faith patenting occurs when an entity targets existing foreign technical designs, preemptively registers unoriginal claims, or accumulates utility models solely to extort settlement fees from commercial operators. CNIPA evaluates application patterns under the Measures for Regulating Patent Application Behavior to identify systematic squatting.
The statutory boundary excludes legitimate filing expansions where prior art searches were incomplete.
Statutory Prohibition
Article 20 of the revised Patent Law establishes an explicit duty of honesty and good faith during filing procedures. Regulatory enforcement targets squatters who submit multiple identical applications or copy published technical papers. Examiners reject suspicious applications before grant through targeted ex officio reviews.
Civil courts penalize abusive litigants by ordering the compensation of legal expenses incurred by targeted manufacturers.
Administrative Remedy
Invalidation requests filed with CNIPA serve as the primary administrative mechanism to neutralize bad faith patenting claims. Defendants present evidence of prior public disclosure or breached non-disclosure agreements to establish pre-existing ownership. Administrative decisions revoking bad faith registrations remove the legal basis for judicial infringement claims.
CNIPA can issue administrative fines against repeat offenders who systematically file fraudulent applications.
Commercial Defense
Factories facing infringement notices grounded in unmeritorious filings assemble evidence of prior use under Article 75 of the Patent Law. Demonstrating continuous commercial exploitation inside China prior to the adversary filing date grants a statutory right to maintain production within the original operational scale. Counter-suing for malicious litigation allows target companies to recover financial damages resulting from illegal market disruptions.
Operating entities systematically record internal research timelines to defeat predatory litigation strategies.
