History
The former body of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) is the Chinese Patent Office, founded in 1980. In 1998, during a reform to the governmental bodies, the name of the Chinese Patent Office changed to the State Intellectual Property Office, which is directly subordinated to the State Council. Now, the Patent Office is affiliated to the State Intellectual Property Office.
Main Responsibilities
The SIPO bears mainly the following responsibilities:
-- to draft proposals of and amendments to patent-related legislations;
-- to receive and examine patent applications for invention, utility model and design, to grant patents, to deal with requests for reexamination and invalidation, and to receive and examine applications for registration of layout designs of integrated circuits;
-- to coordinate and harmonize international affairs in IP field;
-- to administer nation-wide patent affairs; and
-- to instruct local governmental agencies in administrative enforcement of the patent law.
Organogram and Personnel
The organizational chart of the SIPO is shown below.
The SIPO has six functional departments.
Under the SIPO is set up the Patent Office, along with the Patent Reexamination Board and eight subordinate institutions. In addition, it has four social organizations affiliated thereto.
By the end of 2006, the SIPO has a total number of 4,172 staff members working in those bodies, with 2,245 in the Patent Office.
Local Receiving Offices:
For the convenience of applicants, agents and the general public in filing applications or handling other patent-related affairs, the SIPO has set up 21 local receiving offices in different cities across the country.
