Reviews of patents to be accelerated

China will shorten the time required for reviewing applications of high-value patents and for trademark registrations as part of its effort to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights and improve the business climate, the State Council's executive meeting, chaired by Premier Li Keqiang, decided on Wednesday.

"Further enhancing the protection of intellectual property rights is crucial to improving our property rights protection system. It is required by scientific and technological innovation and essential for China's greater opening-up," Li said.

Those attending the meeting on Wednesday decided to intensify law enforcement action in intellectual property rights protection and stressed that all types of market actors must be treated as equals.

Efforts to formulate and improve the criteria for determining, checking and verifying infringements and counterfeiting of patents, trademarks and copyrights will be accelerated.

It was decided that special campaigns against violations of IPR-related law will be carried out and severe punishment involving hefty fines will be meted out to combat all IPR infringement. International cooperation in IPR protection will be enhanced to make it easier for companies to obtain intellectual property rights and their protection overseas.

The government will advance revision of the Patent Law and the Copyright Law, the new round of comprehensive revision of the Trademark Law and revision of the implementing regulations of the Patent Law. The cost for breaking the law will be significantly raised.

IPR-related services will be improved, the meeting decided. Smart systems of patent examination and trademark registration will be developed at a faster pace.

The goal is to shorten, by year's end, the time needed for reviewing applications of high-value patents to within 17.5 months, and the average review period for trademark registration to within five months. The quality of IPR registrations will also be improved.

"Greater efficiency is needed in patent and trademark examination, and the ratio of patents in core areas and with high value shall be increased. It is particularly important to increase the patent commercialization rate, which is relatively low at the moment," Li said.

China has made notable progress in IPR protection. Since 2012, the National Intellectual Property Administration has commissioned a third-party survey each year inviting the public to rate government performance in IPR protection, and the level of public satisfaction has been rising year after year.

In 2018, China, for the first time, made its way into the world's top 20 in the Global Innovation Index of the World Intellectual Property Organization.