Last Sunday, China released its 2019 Report on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Protection and Business Environment during a conference on the 20th World Intellectual Property Day. It was announced that the country had improved its IPR measures to provide convenient, low-cost services for the sector.
China's 2019 Report on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Protection and Business Environment showed that 31 IPR protection centers in the country have set up 20 express centers. These centers were said to provide convenient and low-cost services for industry players.
According to the head of the Protection Department of the National Intellectual Property Administration (NIPA) Zhang Zhicheng, China revised its trademark law, drug administration law, and the anti-unfair competition law last November 1, 2019. The changes were imposed to punish IPR violators with up to five times the amount of actual losses incurred.
Zhang added that the rate imposed against the violators are higher than global standards. According to data from the NIPA, there are already 39,000 administrative adjudication cases of patent infringement disputes in China for 2019. The average time to process these trademark registration cases was then shortened to 4.5 months. The time to evaluate high-value patents was also adjusted to 17.3 months.
The NIPA report also revealed that China rejected over 38,000 cases of unqualified patent and trademark applications in 2019.
China's Ministry of Public Security, Supreme People's Court, and the NIPA engaged in a joint agreement to tighten regulations concerning e-commerce businesses, customs, rural markets, and other industries more susceptible to trademark and patent issues. The measure was said to have been inspired by the rise of counterfeit drugs, masks, and medical devices that flooded the Chinese market during the pandemic.
Earlier in March, law enforcement officials in 90 countries such as China confiscated about 34,000 surgical masks and persecuted 37 organized crime groups. The government apprehended about 121 suspects. The AFP revealed that 2,5000 links to infringed products on websites, online markets, social networks, and advertisements during the pandemic were also dealt with.
The General Administration of Customs (GAC) in China also launched an online campaign that allowed the government to monitor better the export of medical supplies susceptible to infringement and patent violations. During a press conference, an official with the GAC Di Lianzhu claimed that the organization had worked closely with China's e-commerce platforms and foreign trade systems to pinpoint illegal activities better. The effort also allowed these institutions to trace the source of unwarranted production and sales of violative transactions.
