Page 114 - 2017 White Paper
P. 114
7 White Paper on the Business Environment in China
1.7AnOverviewontheAnnualDevelopment
of Intellectual Property Law of P.R.C. in 2016
Preamble telecommunications. The number of China’s trademark
applications for 2015 was 2,876, 4.12 times that of 2008,
In 2016, the Chinese President Xi Jinping said, ranking it the first in the world for 14 consecutive years.
“Encouraging innovation is inseparable from the
protection of intellectual property rights. We should With the increasing of the number of applications, the
make great efforts to create a more open and transparent number of legal cases involving Intellectual Property is
environment on legal policies and continue to strengthen also increasing. In 2014, the Intellectual Property Courts
the protection on intellectual property rights from both were founded in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.
judicial and administrative aspects. We should strengthen In 2015, all the courts received a total of 130,000 civil,
the supervision and administration of the governmental administrative, and criminal cases involving intellectual
authorities on intellectual property right protection and property rights of the first instance, up 11.7% from the
standardization of the market in order to provide a good previous year, among which 123,000 were settled. In
environment for the development of enterprises. China addition, in 2016 the Supreme People’s Court released
treats domestic and foreign-funded enterprises equal and “Opinion on Promoting Three-in-One Civil, Administrative
is dedicated to creating a transparent, fair, competitive, and Criminal Trial involving Intellectual Property”.
and predictable economic and legal environment, According to this Opinion, except for the Intellectual
strengthening the protection on intellectual property Property Courts in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou,
rights and promoting the common development of the intellectual property trial divisions of the People’s
various kinds of enterprises”. We can see from the speech Court shall be renamed the Intellectual Property Right
of President Xi Jinping that the Chinese government is Trial Division, instead of “the X division of civil trial”, to
becoming more concerned about the development of unify civil, administrative, and criminal cases involving
protection on intellectual property rights and has raised intellectual property rights and improve the quality of
many measures to protect intellectual property rights to adjudication.
encourage innovation.
As to the technological issues of various fields
Major Development of Intellectual encountered during the trial of cases involving
Property Right in China in 2016 intellectual property rights, the Intellectual Property
Courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou hired experts
The WIPO’s 2016 edition of the World Intellectual from various technological fields to form the Expert
Property Indicators shows that in 2015, the State Advisory Committee, which introduced the expert juror
Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of system and technology investigator system, improved
China (SIPO) received 1,101,864 patent applications the system of an appraiser appearing in the court,
and became the first office to receive over a million and formed the four in one technology investigation
applications in a single year, up 18.7% from the previous determination system of a jury.
year, among which 42,154 applications were international.
Though most of those applications were domestic Damages are still relatively low in cases involving
patent applications, China’s applications worldwide are intellectual property rights in 2016, though China
growing “slowly but steadily”, especially in the fields continues to increase the punishment level for intellectual
of electronic engineering, computer technology, and property right infringing acts and increased the upper
limit of legal compensation for intellectual property right
114
1.7AnOverviewontheAnnualDevelopment
of Intellectual Property Law of P.R.C. in 2016
Preamble telecommunications. The number of China’s trademark
applications for 2015 was 2,876, 4.12 times that of 2008,
In 2016, the Chinese President Xi Jinping said, ranking it the first in the world for 14 consecutive years.
“Encouraging innovation is inseparable from the
protection of intellectual property rights. We should With the increasing of the number of applications, the
make great efforts to create a more open and transparent number of legal cases involving Intellectual Property is
environment on legal policies and continue to strengthen also increasing. In 2014, the Intellectual Property Courts
the protection on intellectual property rights from both were founded in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.
judicial and administrative aspects. We should strengthen In 2015, all the courts received a total of 130,000 civil,
the supervision and administration of the governmental administrative, and criminal cases involving intellectual
authorities on intellectual property right protection and property rights of the first instance, up 11.7% from the
standardization of the market in order to provide a good previous year, among which 123,000 were settled. In
environment for the development of enterprises. China addition, in 2016 the Supreme People’s Court released
treats domestic and foreign-funded enterprises equal and “Opinion on Promoting Three-in-One Civil, Administrative
is dedicated to creating a transparent, fair, competitive, and Criminal Trial involving Intellectual Property”.
and predictable economic and legal environment, According to this Opinion, except for the Intellectual
strengthening the protection on intellectual property Property Courts in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou,
rights and promoting the common development of the intellectual property trial divisions of the People’s
various kinds of enterprises”. We can see from the speech Court shall be renamed the Intellectual Property Right
of President Xi Jinping that the Chinese government is Trial Division, instead of “the X division of civil trial”, to
becoming more concerned about the development of unify civil, administrative, and criminal cases involving
protection on intellectual property rights and has raised intellectual property rights and improve the quality of
many measures to protect intellectual property rights to adjudication.
encourage innovation.
As to the technological issues of various fields
Major Development of Intellectual encountered during the trial of cases involving
Property Right in China in 2016 intellectual property rights, the Intellectual Property
Courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou hired experts
The WIPO’s 2016 edition of the World Intellectual from various technological fields to form the Expert
Property Indicators shows that in 2015, the State Advisory Committee, which introduced the expert juror
Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of system and technology investigator system, improved
China (SIPO) received 1,101,864 patent applications the system of an appraiser appearing in the court,
and became the first office to receive over a million and formed the four in one technology investigation
applications in a single year, up 18.7% from the previous determination system of a jury.
year, among which 42,154 applications were international.
Though most of those applications were domestic Damages are still relatively low in cases involving
patent applications, China’s applications worldwide are intellectual property rights in 2016, though China
growing “slowly but steadily”, especially in the fields continues to increase the punishment level for intellectual
of electronic engineering, computer technology, and property right infringing acts and increased the upper
limit of legal compensation for intellectual property right
114
