China releases plan on IPR protection, application

2017-01-13
english.gov.cn

The State Council on Jan 13 released a national plan on protection and application of intellectual property rights, which will be carried out during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020).

The move is aimed at improving the legal environment, enhance market value and strengthen comprehensive management of intellectual property rights in China.

The plan contains several major indexes, including the number of patents for every 10,000 people, number of registered work nationwide and the public’s satisfaction degree in intellectual property protection. According to the circular, by 2020, the three indexes should reach 12, 2.2 million and 80 percent, respectively.

Related departments are asked to strengthen the legal system for intellectual property, enhance the efficiency in protection, and improve its quality and market value while speeding up the construction of key intellectual property enterprises, cities and provinces and promoting industrial transformation upgrades, in an effort to achieve the targets.

The legal system for intellectual property is underlined. Efforts should be made to establish patent law, copyright law and laws against illegal competition, and study protection rules under newly emerging fields such as e-commerce and Internet Plus.

To enhance the protection level, departments should put more emphasis on judicial, criminal and administrative protection and strengthen protection in different fields, including imports and exports, traditional cultural heritage, newly emerging fields and people’s lives, said the plan.

Related departments are also asked to establish a quality supervision mechanism for patent application, optimize trademark registration, build high-quality copyrights and push forward intellectual property work on the design of geographical marks, new biological breeds and integrated circuits, with the goal to improve the quality and market value of intellectual property.

The plan also urged boosting the GPS industry, improving the intellectual property layout of Chinese manufacturing and supporting the development of an intellectual property alliance.

In addition, to further ensure the successful implementation of the plan, the construction of an intellectual property public service system was also emphasized, including building service platforms, developing service industry clusters for intellectual property, and enhancing service supervision mechanism.

The document also emphasized talent training and cultivation for intellectual property development and intellectual property cultural construction.