4. Fulfilling commitments on IPR protection
Strengthening IPR protection on China’s own initiative. Strengthening IPR protection is the centerpiece for improving the property rights protection system, and it would provide the biggest boost to the competitiveness of the Chinese economy. It not only serves China's own development needs, but also helps cultivate a business environment that is law-based, internationalized and business-friendly. China encourages technological exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and foreign enterprises, and protects the lawful IPR owned by foreign enterprises in China. At the same time, we hope foreign governments will also improve protection of Chinese IPR.
Building a full-fledged legal system on IPR protection. Since acceding to the WTO, China has formulated and improved its laws and regulations on IPR protection, set up IPR working mechanisms with many countries, drawn upon advanced international legislative practices, and built an IPR legal system that conforms to WTO rules and suits national conditions of China. The amended Trademark Law sets up a system of punitive damages. The amended Anti-Unfair Competition Law improves the protection of trade secrets, identifies act of confusion, introduces the concept of sign and expands the scope of protection for sign. Currently China is working on amending the Patent Law and the Copyright Law.
Continuously strengthening law enforcement on IPR protection. China has enhanced the dominant role of the judiciary in IPR protection to significantly raise the cost for offenders and fully unlock the deterrent effect of relevant laws. The State Intellectual Property Office has been restructured to strengthen law enforcement. China has set up three IPR courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and special judicial organs at 15 intermediate courts in Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuhan, Xi'an and other cities to handle cross-regional IPR cases, including those related to patents. China strengthened administrative law enforcement on intellectual property protection and launched special campaigns targeting outstanding problems, which effectively protected intellectual property rights. Such campaigns include "Convoy Campaign" for protecting patent rights, the "Sword-net Campaign" for combating online infringement and piracy, the "Sweeping Campaign" for cracking down pornography and illegal publication in the copyright field, the "Network Sword Campaign" for combating IPR infringements and counterfeits and the "Sword Actions on Quality Control" for cracking down counterfeits.
Attaining notable results in IPR protection. Since 2001, intellectual property royalties paid by China to foreign right holders has registered an annual growth of 17 percent, reaching USD28.6 billion in 2017. In 2017, China received 1.382 million invention patent applications, ranking the first in the world for the seventh consecutive year. Nearly 10 percent of the applicants were foreign entities and individuals.
