Source: China IP News

In 2018, the social satisfaction score on IP protection in China stood at 76.88, up 0.19% over 2017, revealed at a regular press conference of the second season held by China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) recently. The evaluation report on 10 years' implementation of Outline of National Intellectual Property Strategy and development of the patent attorney profession in 2018 were also released.

In June 5, 2008, the State Council of China issued the Outline of National Intellectual Property Strategy. At the 10th anniversary of implementation of the outline, the Inter-Ministerial Conference on Implementation of Intellectual Property Strategy ran a project from July 2017 to June 2018, fully evaluating such work. "The outline put forward a goal to upgrade China to a country with higher level of IP creation, use, protection and management in 2020. The report suggested that the objective is basically attained, and China is on pace to be an IP power," said Gong Yalin, the Full-Time Deputy Director of Office of the Conference.

2018 marks the seventh year for CNIPA to launch the social satisfaction survey on IP protection, which allows a profound understanding of China's IP protection in the public eye, ranging from law and policy protection, enforcement, management and services to public outreach and education. The 2018 survey enlightens us in the followings: First, the public are satisfied with law and policy protection. Second, the score on public outreach and education increases dramatically. Third, public satisfaction improves significantly. Fourth, there is little difference in satisfaction among the four geographical regions, namely eastern, central, western and northeastern China. Fifth, enforcement needs to improve. CNIPA will take effective measures to beef up IP protection based on this survey, according to Mao Jinsheng, Inspector of CNIPA's IP Protection Department.

CNIPA has made concerted efforts to streamline administration, delegate power and improve compliance oversight in the patent attorney profession. In a bid to promote high-quality development of the profession, CNIPA has also stepped up in-process and over-process control to enhance the capability and quality of patent attorney. Chinese patent attorney profession is developing well, which can be reflected by the facts that the scale is increasing, service capability is improving, service scope is enlarging and operation is smoothing. As of the end of 2018, 42,581 people have obtained the patent attorney credential and 18,668 of them are currently active. The number of patent agencies logs at 2,195, up 371 or 20.3% over 2017.