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On 28 July 2023, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued the 2023 Outline for "Building a Powerful Intellectual Property Country and Implementation Promotion Plan of the 14th Five-Year Plan" (Outline). The Outline was formulated by the Office of the Inter-Ministerial Joint Conference on the Implementation of Intellectual Property Strategy of the State Council, and issued to various governmental department involved for implementation on 21 July 2023, in the form of a notice.
The purpose of the Outline is to deeply implement China’s strategy of strengthening intellectual property rights, consisting of 139 items in the following 7 major points:
1) Improving the intellectual property system – including i) improvement of intellectual property laws and regulations, such as amendments to the Implementing Rules of the Patent Law, the Trademark Law and Implementing Regulations, the Measures for the Registration and Administration of Collective Marks and Certification Marks, the Implementing Rules of the Copyright Law, the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, and the Regulations on Protection of New Plant Varieties ; ii) reform and improvement of major policies on intellectual property, mainly concerned with the improvement of the quality and efficiency of patent and trademark examination and the conduct of research on the system of patent and trademark examiners; iii) improvement of intellectual property rules in emerging areas and specific areas, such as acceleration of the construction of data intellectual property protection rules, exploration of the data intellectual property registration system, conduct of local pilot projects on data intellectual property rights, and the development of “blockchain + copyright” innovation and application pilot program.
2) Strengthening intellectual property protection – including i) judicial protection, specifically through promoting the deepening of the reform of the appellate hearing mechanism for intellectual property cases at the national level, establishing a sound legal system of special procedures in line with the laws of intellectual property adjudication system, amending the provisions of the Civil Procedures Law relating to the technical investigating officers, formulating and issuing the Interpretation of Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights and issuing typical cases on judicial protection of intellectual property rights; ii) governmental protection, mainly through researching and developing rules on evidence in the administrative enforcement of trademarks and guidelines of administrative enforcement, further improving the rules of investigation and evidence collection, standardizing the calculation of illegal business amounts, further increasing the regulation of the infringement and counterfeiting, trademark violations, and illegal agents, to optimize the innovation and business environment, pushing forward trademark law enforcement, intensifying the crack down on infringement and counterfeiting, intensifying the investigation and punishment of bad-faith filings and illegal use of trademarks, combating online piracy and infringement of new plant variety rights, comprehensively strengthening Customs protection of intellectual property rights, and developing and publishing a Guide to the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in Cross-Border E-Commerce, and iii) collaborative protection across departments.
3) Improving intellectual property market operation mechanism – by improving the quality of intellectual property creation, strengthening the integrated use of intellectual property rights, and promoting the market-oriented operation of intellectual property rights.
4) Improving the intellectual property public services – referring to i) strengthening of the supply of intellectual property public services, by accelerating the construction of a national information platform for intellectual property protection; ii) improvement of the effectiveness of intellectual property public services, for example, formulating and revising the guidelines for the application, change, assignment, pledge and opposition of new plant variety rights, and optimizing and improving the information service platform for the protection of new plant varieties.
5) Creating a favorable human and social environment for intellectual property – by vigorously promoting the concept of intellectual property culture and strengthening the foundation of intellectual property development.
6) Participating in global intellectual property governance – including deep participation in Global IP Governance and International Rule-making under the Framework of WIPO, strengthening of “Belt and Road” intellectual property cooperation), and promotion of the implementation of the Intellectual Property Chapter of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the agreement on the protection of geographical indications and cooperation between China and the EU.
7) Strengthening organizational safeguards - implementing relevant tax incentives and continuously optimizing management and service measures, creating a favorable tax environment for the construction of a strong intellectual property country.
In the Outline, the competent departments are listed corresponding to each task. And the Outline points out that in the division of tasks, where more than one department is responsible, the department listed first is the lead department, and the others are participating departments.
The Outline is very comprehensive and covers all aspects of intellectual property, which shows the importance and determination of the Chinese government in the field of intellectual property. The real implementation of these tasks in the next five years is to be expected.
The purpose of the Outline is to deeply implement China’s strategy of strengthening intellectual property rights, consisting of 139 items in the following 7 major points:
1) Improving the intellectual property system – including i) improvement of intellectual property laws and regulations, such as amendments to the Implementing Rules of the Patent Law, the Trademark Law and Implementing Regulations, the Measures for the Registration and Administration of Collective Marks and Certification Marks, the Implementing Rules of the Copyright Law, the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, and the Regulations on Protection of New Plant Varieties ; ii) reform and improvement of major policies on intellectual property, mainly concerned with the improvement of the quality and efficiency of patent and trademark examination and the conduct of research on the system of patent and trademark examiners; iii) improvement of intellectual property rules in emerging areas and specific areas, such as acceleration of the construction of data intellectual property protection rules, exploration of the data intellectual property registration system, conduct of local pilot projects on data intellectual property rights, and the development of “blockchain + copyright” innovation and application pilot program.
2) Strengthening intellectual property protection – including i) judicial protection, specifically through promoting the deepening of the reform of the appellate hearing mechanism for intellectual property cases at the national level, establishing a sound legal system of special procedures in line with the laws of intellectual property adjudication system, amending the provisions of the Civil Procedures Law relating to the technical investigating officers, formulating and issuing the Interpretation of Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights and issuing typical cases on judicial protection of intellectual property rights; ii) governmental protection, mainly through researching and developing rules on evidence in the administrative enforcement of trademarks and guidelines of administrative enforcement, further improving the rules of investigation and evidence collection, standardizing the calculation of illegal business amounts, further increasing the regulation of the infringement and counterfeiting, trademark violations, and illegal agents, to optimize the innovation and business environment, pushing forward trademark law enforcement, intensifying the crack down on infringement and counterfeiting, intensifying the investigation and punishment of bad-faith filings and illegal use of trademarks, combating online piracy and infringement of new plant variety rights, comprehensively strengthening Customs protection of intellectual property rights, and developing and publishing a Guide to the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in Cross-Border E-Commerce, and iii) collaborative protection across departments.
3) Improving intellectual property market operation mechanism – by improving the quality of intellectual property creation, strengthening the integrated use of intellectual property rights, and promoting the market-oriented operation of intellectual property rights.
4) Improving the intellectual property public services – referring to i) strengthening of the supply of intellectual property public services, by accelerating the construction of a national information platform for intellectual property protection; ii) improvement of the effectiveness of intellectual property public services, for example, formulating and revising the guidelines for the application, change, assignment, pledge and opposition of new plant variety rights, and optimizing and improving the information service platform for the protection of new plant varieties.
5) Creating a favorable human and social environment for intellectual property – by vigorously promoting the concept of intellectual property culture and strengthening the foundation of intellectual property development.
6) Participating in global intellectual property governance – including deep participation in Global IP Governance and International Rule-making under the Framework of WIPO, strengthening of “Belt and Road” intellectual property cooperation), and promotion of the implementation of the Intellectual Property Chapter of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the agreement on the protection of geographical indications and cooperation between China and the EU.
7) Strengthening organizational safeguards - implementing relevant tax incentives and continuously optimizing management and service measures, creating a favorable tax environment for the construction of a strong intellectual property country.
In the Outline, the competent departments are listed corresponding to each task. And the Outline points out that in the division of tasks, where more than one department is responsible, the department listed first is the lead department, and the others are participating departments.
The Outline is very comprehensive and covers all aspects of intellectual property, which shows the importance and determination of the Chinese government in the field of intellectual property. The real implementation of these tasks in the next five years is to be expected.