Brief Introduction

A law-enforcement inspection was carried out by Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Supervision on July 29, 2020 on Shanghai Hugui Intellectual Property Agency Co Ltd, which was found to be illegally engaged in the business of a patent agency.

Though the agency had not gained a license to act as a patent agency, it still signed a Patent Application Agency Entrustment Contract with Mox Automation (Shanghai) Co Ltd in October 2019.

On behalf of Mox, it applied for seven patent rights for utility models at the China National Intellectual Property Administration in December 2019, charging 17,500 yuan ($2,706) as a patent agency fee. In June and July of 2020, the agency gained six patent rights for utility models, and another one is still under review by CNIPA.

The law enforcement team believed that the Shanghai Hugui Intellectual Property Agency had violated the Regulations on Patent Commissioning because it had been acting as a patent agency without a license and demanded it stop its illegal activity. It also confiscated its 16,509.43 yuan in illegal gains and fined it 24,764.15 yuan.

Professional Comments

As the first administrative punishment case for acting as a patent agency without authorization in Shanghai, the Shanghai Hugui Intellectual Property Agency case should serve as a warning for enterprises and as a reference for other similar cases.