Source: China IP News

On May 15, the Office of the National Leading Group on Fight against IPR Infringement and Counterfeiting released the 2018 Report on the Latest Development of IPR Protection and Business Environment in China, highlighting China's new development and progress in terms of continuously deepening reform, protecting IPR and optimizing business environment.

At the press conference on the same day, Gan Lin, Head of the said Office and Vice Minister of the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) noted the remarkable progress made by regions and member departments nationwide in strengthening IPR protection, cracking down IPR infringement and counterfeiting and fostering favorable business environment under the organization of the said National Leading Group, with IPR protection level raised, business environment improved, innovation and start-up enthusiasm motivated and economy development quality elevated. China edged into top 20 for the first time at Global Innovation Index 2018 rankings as showed by Global Innovation Index 2018 by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). World Bank also marked China 3rd among the Economies with the Most Notable Improvement and top the East Asia and Pacific region in Doing Business 2019. 

Regarding IPR protection, the administrative law enforcement and judicial protection have been significantly enhanced. In 2018, the administrative law enforcers nationwide investigated and handled 215,000 cases about IPR infringement and counterfeiting, among which 77,000 were patent infringement cases, 31,000 were trademark-related violation cases and over 2,500 were about copyright infringement and piracy cases. The Customs system investigated and confiscated 47,200 batches of exported and imported IPR infringing goods in total, containing 24.8 million worth of IPR infringing goods. The public security authorities cracked over 19,000 cases of IPR infringement and counterfeiting. The procurators approved the arrest of 5,627 persons involved in 3,306 criminal cases of IPR infringement. The number of concluded cases at the courts nationwide hits 320,000, up 41.6% compared with the previous year.

During Q&A, Mr. Gan Shaoning, Deputy Commissioner of China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) noted that as China was optimizing business environment, it was obvious to all to achieve progress. It was inseparable from the high importance attached by Chinese government. In order to strengthen IPR protection, CNIPA was perfecting laws and regulations, completed punitive compensation system and largely raised IPR infringement costs; intensifying origin protection, improving IP examination quality and efficiency; strengthening law enforcement, with IPR protection system integrating "strict, large, fast and fair IPR protection" basically established;  perfecting public participation by enhancing the construction of IP culture and perfecting coordination linkage mechanism between fast grant, confirmation, safeguarding. 

IPR protection is significant for fostering favorable business environment. In the near future, China will launch the formulation of Strategy to Build China into an Intellectual Property Powerful Country toward 2035, further fostering more favorable business environment and satisfying the need for high-quality development.