Written on the occasion of the launch of the National IP Publicity Week 2020

We will usher in the most active week for the relevant persons of intellectual property - the National IP Publicity Week in each April. We carry forward the culture of innovation, popularize the intellectual property knowledge, and demonstrate the achievements of intellectual property development in this week. Innovation and creation illumes the light of human civilization. The intellectual property system was established originally to continuously guarantee and encourage innovation and promote economic development and social progress. This year, we will pay attention to health, an eternal topic of humankind, and review the battles between ancestors and diseases for thousands of years, to see what has changed our living environment and think about what we can do to fight against the epidemic and promote national health.

"Awareness of unexpected development may inspire the wisdom of people and adversities may make a country stronger." The Chinese nation has experienced many hardships in its history. However, it has never been crushed but with higher morale, and continued to grow and rise from hardships. Our ancestors have accumulated rich experience in the fight against epidemics for thousands of years, and gradually developed a series of more effective measures for epidemic prevention and treatment. The epidemic broke out during the era of Jian'an in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Zhang Zhongjing wrote the Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases and established the Six-Syndrome Differentiation System after learning the knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine and drawing experience from others extensively. It is the first monograph on the treatment of infectious diseases in Chinese history. Wu Youxing experienced the plague in the Ming Dynasty and wrote the first monograph on the pestilence in the Science of Epidemic Febrile Diseases in China - Treatise on Pestilence ... The ancestors had cognitive limitations in ancient times with low scientific level, but they still accumulated a lot of scientific knowledge and methods for fighting against infectious diseases. They continued to meet the growing demands of the people for health and inherit the bloodline of Chinese children, relying on a vast collection of traditional Chinese medicine classics and techniques such as acupuncture, moxibustion, stone needle therapy, medicine, massage therapy and guided rehabilitation.

"All the people of the People's Republic of China founded newly are high-spirited and vigorous when spring is in the air." The Communist Party of China (CPC) led the masses to launch a patriotic health campaign after the People's Republic of China was founded newly, completely changing the epidemic situation of infectious diseases with the public health defense line gradually stronger and the technical innovation ability of hygiene and health enhanced significantly. In October 2015, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC National Congress proposed for the first time to promote the construction of a healthy China which rose to a national strategy. In 2019, the Healthy China Action (2019-2030) was issued at the national level, and the State Council issued the Opinions of the State Council on the Implementation of the Healthy China Action. The health and wellness development has entered a new stage in China, it has become a new request to guarantee the health of the people comprehensively throughout the cycle, and the core status of technological innovation in the construction of a healthy China is highlighted vigorously.

There is no overall well-off without national health. General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized that science and technology are the most powerful weapon for human beings to fight against diseases and the humankind cannot overcome major disasters and epidemics without scientific development and technological innovation. It is a history of continuous struggle for innovation throughout the Chinese civilization of five thousand years. Tu Youyou discovered artemisinin (with a 100% inhibition rate against malaria) from the treasure trove of the ancient Chinese pharmacopoeia the Handbook of Prescription for Emergency and extracted and purified it in 1971 after repeated tests. The infectious disease prevention and treatment prescription (Dayuanyin) recorded by Wu youxing in the Treatise on Pestilence was used by modern people to treat a new infectious disease called SARS three hundred and sixty years later ... The Chinese nation has overcome the dangerous epidemics situation again and again by inheriting the ancestors' essence and keeping on innovation, and the physical fitness and health literacy of the people have been improved continuously.

Innovation is an inexhaustible impetus for a country to flourish and also the deepest national endowment of the Chinese nation. We have more profoundly realized from the prevention and control of COVID-19 epidemic the importance of General Secretary Xi Jinping's repeated emphasis on putting the lives and health of the people first, and also realized that technological innovation is not only a technical tool but also the core impetus of a healthy China. In the future, the layout direction of technological innovation, priority investment of resources and key development areas in the field of health and wellness in China will directly determine whether the development goals of "Healthy China" can be achieved as scheduled. As a basic guarantee for stimulating innovation, the intellectual property system is bound to play a key role in this process.

"A good doctor will prevent the disease before it begins". In order to accelerate the construction of a healthy China, a series of rules applicable universally must be available to offset the innovation risks and stimulate the innovation. The intellectual property system was established therefore. The intellectual property system has been improved gradually in China along with the reform and opening up process for more than 40 years. China has developed, mastered and utilized successfully a number of core technologies of independent intellectual property rights in many fields including health and wellness, significantly improving the health of the people. More prominent is the important role of the intellectual property system in stimulating innovation and benefiting the livelihood of the people now when the health and wellness undertakings have an increasing need for the leadership of innovation. We need to further strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in the new situation, so that the legitimate rights and interests of innovators can be protected effectively and the innovators can develop more innovative medicines and precise medical devices and find out the unique roles of more traditional Chinese medicines in medical treatment and disease prevention, thus promoting the innovative development of medical industry, serving the strategy of "Healthy China", and benefiting thousands of households with the vigorous development and achievements on the motherland. Only by creating a good innovation environment and business environment can more willing and capable innovators realize their dreams, and can many innovative seedlings grow into endless forests, and can endless impetus be injected to the development of national health.

"There is no any failure if all the strength and wisdom is gathered." Only rooted in the fertile soil of innovation can we enjoy the grace of innovation and make the innovation achievements. The intellectual property undertakings have long been integrated into all aspects of social life along with the times. A healthy China is an important foundation for each of us to pursue a better life. The protection of intellectual property rights is to defend the light of innovation and the flame of hope in our minds. Led firmly by the Central Committee of the CPC with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, we must further implement the intellectual property strategy, accelerate the construction of a strong country through intellectual property, transform institutional advantages into innovative advantages, and technological capabilities into innovative achievements, and master more core technologies of independent intellectual property rights, to write a new chapter in the great journey of building a healthy China and achieving national rejuvenation. (Translated from CNIPA Website Chinese Version)