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5 White Paper on the Business Environment in China
Conclusion and Future Development
Adjudication of intellectual property disputes be it civil,
crime or administrative, while not necessarily growing in
numbers in China for various reasons are certainly growing in
importance. e Chinese government is highly aware of the
importance of innovation and the need to protect invention’s
designs, trademarks, patents, copyright, trade secrets, and to
sti e unfair competition. Chinese laws of intellectual property
are largely of international standards. However, the institu-
tions that enforce those laws, both administrative and judi-
cial, have lagged far behind the development of substantive
law and quali ed lawyers. Developments at the end of 2013
and in 2014 including the decision to establish Intellectual
Property Courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the
latter in many respects for the whole province of Guangdong,
is one example of dramatic acts to protect IP. Furthermore,
the recent Plenary Meeting of the Communist Party devoted
to the rule of law has great potential for improving judicial
institutions, including the establishment of certain circuit
courts, freeing courts from their ties to local governments to
the same level, upgrading judicial personnel including pos-
sibly increasing remuneration of judges, and the emphasis on
the Constitution, all of which may be harbingers of substantial
developments of judicial reorganization. Certainly the courts
of China and many of the administrative tribunals need sub-
stantial upgrading. It is possible that new policies will do just
that, thereby doing a great deal to provide proper institutions
to protect intellectual property.
86
Conclusion and Future Development
Adjudication of intellectual property disputes be it civil,
crime or administrative, while not necessarily growing in
numbers in China for various reasons are certainly growing in
importance. e Chinese government is highly aware of the
importance of innovation and the need to protect invention’s
designs, trademarks, patents, copyright, trade secrets, and to
sti e unfair competition. Chinese laws of intellectual property
are largely of international standards. However, the institu-
tions that enforce those laws, both administrative and judi-
cial, have lagged far behind the development of substantive
law and quali ed lawyers. Developments at the end of 2013
and in 2014 including the decision to establish Intellectual
Property Courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the
latter in many respects for the whole province of Guangdong,
is one example of dramatic acts to protect IP. Furthermore,
the recent Plenary Meeting of the Communist Party devoted
to the rule of law has great potential for improving judicial
institutions, including the establishment of certain circuit
courts, freeing courts from their ties to local governments to
the same level, upgrading judicial personnel including pos-
sibly increasing remuneration of judges, and the emphasis on
the Constitution, all of which may be harbingers of substantial
developments of judicial reorganization. Certainly the courts
of China and many of the administrative tribunals need sub-
stantial upgrading. It is possible that new policies will do just
that, thereby doing a great deal to provide proper institutions
to protect intellectual property.
86
