iOn October 27, 2023, the Hangzhou Municipal Administration for Market Regulation issued the “Implementation Rules of Hangzhou Municipal Intellectual Property Special Fund Allocation Factors.” The Rules are effective immediately and provide funding for domestic and foreign IP litigation, IP financing, whistleblower rewards for reporting IP violations, monetary rewards for winning national and provincial patent medals, etc.
Some of the highlights are reproduced below:
Litigation Funding
1. Support enterprises to carry out domestic intellectual property rights protection. If there is an effective judgment for rights protection and the verdict is successful, funding will be provided at a rate not exceeding 30% of the actual rights protection agency fees paid. The amount of funding shall not exceed 200,000 RMB, and the same entity shall not be funded more than one project per year. The total annual funding for this project shall not exceed 2 million yuan.
2. Support enterprises to carry out overseas intellectual property rights protection. If there is a successful verdict for rights protection, or the settlement is successful and the relevant documents do not indicate that the applicant has constituted an infringement, a subsidy will be provided at a rate not exceeding 50% of the actual rights protection agency fee paid, and the subsidy amount shall not exceed 1 million RMB not more than one funded project per applicant per year. The total annual funding for this project shall not exceed 3 million RMB.
IP Finance
For the banking financial institutions within this Municipality which rank among the top two enterprises in the whole Municipality in terms of intellectual property pledge in the previous year and have a pledge amount of more than 1 billion RMB, each institution shall be given a reward of not more than 300,000 RMB, and for those in the third to fifth places with a pledge amount of more than 500 million RMB, each institution shall be given a reward of not more than 200,000 RMB.
Whistleblower Rewards for Reporting IP Violations
Establish an intellectual property reporting reward system. For whistleblowers who report major violations of intellectual property rights of individuals or enterprises, if the evidence is verified to be true and the violations are dealt with in accordance with the law, rewards of no more than 1,000 RMB and 2,000 RMB will be given based on the value of the evidence and the circumstances of the case, respectively. For the same whistleblower, the annual reward will not exceed 10,000 RMB.
Medals
1. Those who are newly awarded the China Patent Gold Medal, Silver Medal, and Excellence Award will be given rewards of no more than 1 million RMB, 300,000 RMB, and 100,000 RMB respectively.
2. New winners of the China Trademark Gold Award will be given a reward of no more than RMB 1 million;
3. New winners of the Zhejiang Provincial Intellectual Property Award will be given a reward of no more than 1 million RMB;
4. Newly awarded first, second and third prizes for patents, trademarks and geographical indications in Zhejiang Province will be awarded no more than 300,000 RMB, 150,000 RMB and 50,000 RMB respectively.
Patent Agent Funding
For those who have newly obtained the national patent agent qualification certificate and have worked continuously in the entity for more than one year, the entity where they work will be given a reward of no more than 10,000 RMB per person. For those who have newly obtained a senior technical title in intellectual property and have worked continuously in the entity for more than one year, the entity where they work will be provided with a subsidy of no more than 20,000 RMB per person. The same person with the same professional title can only be funded once. The number of applicants per unit per year shall not exceed 5.
The full text is available here or here (courtesy of 知识产权界, Chinese only).
