China attaches great importance to IPR protection and publicity

 April 26 is World Intellectual Property Day and during the period from April 20 to 26 China will hold a series of IPR-related activities. Since many years ago, China has been attaching great importance to IPR protection and publicity and the public’s IPR awareness is already enhanced.

The theme of the World Intellectual Property Day this year is Visionary Innovators. In 2000, China and Algeria submitted a proposal to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on setting up World Intellectual Property Day. With the background of China’s building of innovation-based country, each year governments and community groups organize various kinds of activities to publicize IPR. Deputy Director of the Office under the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) Han Xiucheng said, “Let IPR cultural concepts of respecting knowledge, advocating innovation and abiding by laws become the public’s self-consciousness and norm of behavior and create a good atmosphere of public opinions and social environment.”

Nowadays, more and more cases related to IPR protection emerged from such fields as science and technology, commerce, culture and film and video. According to the statistics released by the Supreme People’s Court, in 2011, the courts across the nation newly recorded 59,600 IP-related first instance civil cases and ended more than 58,200 pieces, both rising by nearly 40%. Cases related to patent disputes, trade signs and copyrights showed sustained growth. Take cases involving copyrights as an example, the spokesperson from the Supreme People’s Court Sun Jungong said, “In 2011, local courts recorded 35,185 cases related to copyrights, up 42.34% compared with the previous year. Copyright disputes related to network technology development and application were highly concerned. Enhancing copyright protection and promoting the development of business models become unavoidable tasks. Besides, with the rapid growth of Internet, cases related to Internet take a lion’s share in IP-related cases.”

In terms of China’s IP protection, the public’s consciousness on IP protection has been greatly improved and the governmental departments also consummated the legal environment for IP protection to cater for the new situation. To solicit for public opinions, the Patent Law (drafted) was publicized in late March.

As for the parts to respond to new technological developments, Vice Inspector of the Copyright Management Section under the National Copyright Administration Duan Yuping said, “(the draft) responds to some challenges of today’s new technological developments, particularly the development of Internet technology. Some contents in the right of communication through information network issued in 2006 were included into the draft of the Patent Law. And the examination responsibility of purely technical service providers was removed. ”

During the period of China IP Publicity Week this year, the National Copyright Administration will conduct a series of publicity activities, the Ministry of Justice will hold trainings on IP laws, and China Association for Science and Technology will give tour IP speeches. The State Intellectual Property Office will release IP development report and appraise important IP protection issues across the nation. [Chinese version is available on CRI Online]