Draft amendment on patents tabled

Less than three months after the State Council put its stamp on the patent law reform blueprint, the government yesterday submitted the draft amendment to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature, for first reading yesterday.

But it's unlikely that the draft will be passed at this week's session as the Legislation Law stipulates that a draft law must receive three readings before being adopted.

This will be the third revision to the law promulgated some 25 years ago. The previous two amendments were made in 1992 and 2000.