The Information Office of the State Council, China's cabinet,  issued a white paper on April 21st, giving a brief introduction to and explanation of China's efforts and new progress in protecting intellectual property rights over the past decade. Following is the full text.

    Contents

    Foreword

     I. Basic Situation of the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights

    II. Patent Protection

    III. Trademark Protection

    IV. Copyright Protection

    V. Intellectual Property Rights Protection for Audio and Video Products

    VI. Protection of New Varieties of Agricultural and Forestry Plants

    VII. Customs Protection of Intellectual Property Rights

    VIII. Public Security Organs Act on Criminal Infringement on Intellectual Property Rights

    IX. Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property Rights

    Conclusion

Foreword

An intellectual property system is a basic legal system that promotes mankind's economic development, social progress, scientific and technological innovation and cultural prosperity. Because science and technology is developing rapidly worldwide and the pace of economic globalization is accelerating, the status of the intellectual property system in economic and social life has reached an all-time high. The protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) has drawn widespread attention in the international community.

China is a country with a long history of civilization. Over the past few thousand years, vast numbers of outstanding Chinese scientists, inventors, writers and artists have made enormous contributions to mankind's development and progress through their intellectual achievements. The Chinese Government and people are keenly aware of the value of inventions, creations, science and technology.

The IPR protection system was established at a comparatively late date in China, but has developed rapidly. Major progress has been made in IPR protection since the late 1970s, when China initiated reform and opening-up policies. Over time, an IPR system has been gradually established and is promoting healthy economic development and overall social progress.

In order to help the international community have a better understanding of the real situation regarding China's IPR protection and make a proper judgment, we give here a brief introduction to and explanation of related issues.

I Basic Situation of the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights

China has always adopted a responsible attitude to actively promoting IPR protection. While adhering to the international rules on IPR protection, China has decided on a level of IPR protection appropriate for its own national situation. It has made great efforts to balance the interests of intellectual property creators, users and the general public, so as to create a benign circle for the creation and use of intellectual property.

Major progress has been made in IPR protection in China over the past years thanks to concerted efforts made by people from many different sectors.

A relatively complete system of laws and regulations that covers a wide range of subjects and is in line with generally accepted international rules has been established and keeps improving. Since the 1980s, the State has promulgated and put into effect a number of laws and regulations covering the major contents of IPR protection. These include the "Patent Law of the People's Republic of China," "Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China," "Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China," "Regulations on the Protection of Computer Software," " Regulations on the Protection of Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits," "Regulations on the Collective Management of Copyright," "Regulations on the Management of Audio-Video Products," "Regulations on the Protection of New Varieties of Plants," "Regulations on the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights by the Customs," "Regulations on the Protection of Special Signs" and "Regulations on the Protection of Olympic Logos." China has also promulgated a series of relevant rules for the implementation of these laws and regulations and their legal interpretation.

As a result, the system of laws and regulations on IPR protection in China has been continuously improved. In 2001, around the time when China was admitted into the WTO, in order to provide effective legal protection for IPR, the country made comprehensive revisions to the laws and regulations regarding IPR protection and their legal interpretation. While more emphasis is given to promoting the progress of science and technology and innovation with regard to legislative intent, content of rights, standards of protection and means of legal remedy, the revisions brought the laws and regulations into conformity with the WTO's "Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights" and other international rules on IPR protection.

A co-ordinated and efficient work system and a law enforcement mechanism have been established and improved. In its practice of IPR protection, a two-way parallel protection mode - administrative and judicial protection - has emerged in China.

Several departments in China are assigned the duty of protecting IPR. They include primarily the State Intellectual Property Office, State Administration for Industry and Commerce, Press and Publication General Administration, State Copyright Bureau, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Agriculture, State Forestry Administration, Ministry of Public Security, General Administration of Customs, Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate. For many years these departments have done effective work in their respective fields. To further strengthen IPR protection, in 2004 China established the State IPR Protection Work Team headed by a vice-premier of the State Council, responsible for planning and co-ordinating the work regarding IPR protection throughout the country. Its office, located in the Ministry of Commerce, handles the routine work of the team.

In recent years, the State has increased work contacts between administrative law enforcement organs and public security organs and people's procuratorates with respect to IPR protection. In October 2000, the relevant departments jointly issued the "Notice on Strengthening Co-operation and Co-ordination in the Work of Investigating and Dealing with Criminal Cases that Infringe Intellectual Property Rights," which contains clear provisions.

In July 2001, the State Council promulgated the "Regulations on the Transfer of Suspected Criminal Cases by Administrative Law Enforcement Organs," which includes clear provisions on how the administrative law enforcement organs should transfer suspected criminal cases to public security organs in a timely fashion.

In March 2004, the relevant departments jointly issued the "Opinions on Increasing Work Contacts between Administrative Law Enforcement Organs and Public Security Organs and People's Procuratorates." A work mechanism involving the co-ordination of administrative law enforcement and criminal law enforcement has been established, creating a joint power to deal with IPR infringements. This ensures that suspected criminal cases enter the judicial process promptly.

In recent years, the judicial organs have adjudicated a large number of IPR infringement cases according to law. In civil cases, the infringed parties have received timely compensation for their financial losses, and IPR-related crimes have been effectively combatted.

Administrative law enforcement has been strengthened in IPR protection. As gradual improvements are made to the legal system on IPR protection, China has shifted its focus from legislation to law enforcement. Administrative law enforcement has been enhanced through the combination of routine management and supervision with special crackdown campaigns. In August 2004, the Chinese Government decided to launch a special one-year campaign to protect IPR across the country from September 2004 to August 2005. It was decided at the national TV and telephone conference on rectification and standardization of the market economic order convened by the State Council on March 31, 2005 that the campaign should be extended to the end of 2005.

With unified planning, the relevant departments have investigated and dealt with major IPR infringement cases, focusing on major fields in the protection of trademark rights, copyright and patent rights, on major links in the import and export of goods, all types of exhibitions and wholesale markets of commodities and on key places where producers and sellers of counterfeit goods were known to be concentrated. Their swift action and strict law enforcement efforts have dealt a blow to IPR offenders, achieving positive results.

Efforts are being made to heighten the awareness of the general public about IPR. The Chinese Government attaches great importance to publicity concerning IPR. Beginning in 2004, the State designated the week from April 20 to 26 every year as the "week for publicizing the importance of IPR protection." By making wide use of newspapers, magazines, television, radio and the Internet through holding seminars and knowledge contests and making public interest advertisements, the government can carry out publicity campaigns and educate the general public about IPR protection. The aim is to create a social atmosphere in which labour, knowledge, talent and creation are respected and heighten the general public's awareness of IPR.

To actively fulfil the international obligations to protect IPR, China has taken an active approach to joining major international conventions and agreements on IPR protection. Following its accession to the World Intellectual Property Organization in 1980, China joined in succession more than 10 international conventions, treaties, agreements and protocols, such as the "Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property," "Patent Co-operation Treaty," "Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Micro-organisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure," "Locarno Agreement Establishing an International Classification for Industrial Designs," "Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks," "Nice Agreement Concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purpose of the Registration of Marks," "Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks," "Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights," "International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants," "Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works," "Universal Copyright Convention," and "Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorized Duplication."

While strictly executing its international obligations in IPR protection, China has devoted great efforts to adjusting and improving international rules regarding IPR protection in order to let all countries of the world share the fruits and benefits brought about by the progress of science and technology. In recent years, China has held talks and engaged in exchanges and co-operation with other countries, international organizations and foreign-invested enterprises in the field of IPR. At the suggestion of the United States, starting in 2003, China and the US have held a round-table conference on IPR every year and reached agreement on many IPR-related issues at the two round-table conferences. In 2004, China and the European Union held their first round of talks on IPR in Beijing. Initial agreement was reached by the two sides on matters of co-operation related to IPR. Relevant Chinese departments have established good co-operative relations with corresponding departments in several countries and international organizations such as the World Intellectual Property Organization and International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. In September 2003, a mechanism was established for regular contact and co-ordination between relevant Chinese departments and foreign-invested enterprises. Under the mechanism, a meeting is held every three months to solicit comments and suggestions from foreign-invested enterprises on issues relating to IPR protection.

II Patent Protection

With the establishment of the China Patent Office in 1980, China's patent work has developed continuously over 25 years. On April 1, 1985, the "Patent Law of the People's Republic of China" came into effect. Following that, China promulgated several patent-related laws and regulations, such as the "Rules for the Implementation of the Patent Law," "Regulations on Patent Commissioning," "Procedures for the Administrative Enforcement of Laws Concerning Patents" and "Regulations on the Implementation of Customs Protection of Patent Rights." China has twice made revisions to the "Patent Law" in the light of the requirements of social and economic development so as to enable it to improve continuously.

By mainly relying on its own resources, China has established a relatively complete and independent patent examination system in a short period of time. On January 1, 1994, China became a member state of the "Patent Co-operation Treaty." The China Patent Office is China's agency dealing with cases involving the Patent Co-operation Treaty, performing international patent searches and preliminary examinations. Meanwhile, China has established a fairly comprehensive system for patent work. Relevant departments of the State Council and local governments have established patent administrative organs in accordance with the provisions of the "Patent Law." China now has more than 5,000 people working in patent agencies and a service system mainly providing patent commissioning, patent information, patent technology transfer intermediary and patent technology evaluation services has taken initial shape.

China's patent work has come along in leaps and bounds. From April 1, 1985 to the end of 2004, the State Intellectual Property Office handled 2,284,925 patent applications with an average annual increase of 18.9 per cent. Of these, 1,874,358 were domestic applications, and 410,567 came from other countries, accounting for 82 and 18 per cent respectively. Patent applications in China had exceeded two million by March 17, 2004. It took China 15 years for patent applications to reach one million. But it took only four years for the number to double. In 2004, the State Intellectual Property Office handled 353,807 applications, an increase of 14.7 per cent over the previous year, which saw 308,487 applications. Of these, 278,943 were domestic applications, accounting for 78.8 per cent of the total and an increase of 11 per cent over the previous year, which saw 251,238 applications. Foreign applications numbered 74,864, accounting for 21.2 per cent of the total and an increase of 30.8 per cent over the previous year, which saw 57,249 applications. From 1994 to 2004, the State Intellectual Property Office handled, in total, 7,131 international applications for patent rights, of which 1,592 such applications were handled in 2004. International patent applications that entered China via the channel of the Patent Co-operation Treaty totalled 157,770. Of these, 32,438 applications were submitted in 2004.

By the end of 2004, the State Intellectual Property Office had approved 1,255,499 patents. Of these, 1,093,268 were domestic ones, and 162,231 were from other countries, accounting for 87.1 and 12.9 per cent of the total number of approved patents, respectively. The numbers of invention patents, utility model patents and exterior design patents that had been approved were 185,412, 651, 224 and 418,863, accounting for 14.8, 51.9 and 33.3 per cent respectively. In 2004, the State Intellectual Property Office approved 190,238 patents, an increase of 4.4 per cent over the previous year, which had 182,226. It approved 151,328 domestic patents, an increase of 1.2 per cent, compared with 149,588 in the previous year. At the same time, it approved 38,910 foreign patents, an increase of 19.2 per cent over the previous year, which saw 32,638.

The "Regulations on the Protection of Layout Design of Integrated Circuits" went into effect in China on October 1, 2001. By the end of 2004, the State Intellectual Property Office had received 682 applications for the registration of layout design of integrated circuits. It registered 571 of them, and issued related public notices as well as certificates to the applicants. In 2004 alone, the State Intellectual Property Office received 244 applications for the registration of layout design of integrated circuits. It registered 205 of them, and issued related public notices as well as certificates to the applicants.

In recent years, patent administration departments at all levels have strengthened administrative enforcement of the law in this respect. In particular, they have launched crackdowns on infringements of patent rights of food and medicines, which are closely connected with people's health and lives. They have made great efforts to investigate and deal with cases that infringe upon the patent rights of key technologies and cases that had widespread repercussions. They have also conscientiously investigated and dealt with infringements and counterfeits of patent rights of inventions, utility models and exterior designs. Following the State Council's unified plan, in August 2004, the State Intellectual Property Office issued the "Work Programme on Strengthening Enforcement of the Laws on Intellectual Property Rights and Launching a Special Law Enforcement Campaign." All subsidiary departments under the State Intellectual Property Office were mobilized to participate in the campaign. By the end of that year, local intellectual property offices had checked 10,251 industrial venues and examined 2,081,537 commodity items. By the end of 2004, local patent administration departments across the country had accepted 12,058 cases involving patent infringement and patent disputes, and 10,411 of the cases, or 86.3 per cent, were resolved. In 2004, local patent administration departments accepted 1,455 cases involving patent disputes, and 1, 215 of them were resolved. They also dealt with 3,965 cases of patent counterfeits, and 358 cases of unauthorized use of others' patents.

III Trademark Protection

Great progress has been made in China's trademark protection work since November 1, 1979, when China resumed the unified registration of trademarks. The "Trademark Law" went into effect on March 1, 1983. The Chinese Government promulgated the "Rules for the Implementation of the Trademark Law" in March 1983 to help with the implementation of the law and in 1988 revised it for the first time. In February 1993, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) made the first revision to the " Trademark Law" to include service trademarks in the work of trademark protection, strengthen efforts to crack down on trademark infringement and counterfeiting and improve trademark registration procedures. In July 1993, the Chinese Government made revisions to the "Rules for the Implementation of the Trademark Law" for the second time to bring collective trademarks and certification trademarks into the scope of legal protection of trademarks and added to it provisions on the protection of "trademarks well known to the public."

In October 2001, the NPC Standing Committee made revisions to the "Trademark Law" for the second time to include three-dimensional trademarks and colour combination trademarks in the scope of trademark protection and offer greater protection to well-known trademarks. The revised "Trademark Law" also stipulates that the trademark system shall be used to protect geographical marks, judicial examination shall be added for the certification process of trademark rights and greater efforts shall be made to crack down on trademark infringement and counterfeiting, thus bringing the relevant provisions of China's "Trademark Law" in line with the principles of the WTO's "Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights." In August 2002, the Chinese Government again revised the "Rules for the Implementation of the Trademark Law" and renamed it "Regulations for the Implementation of the Trademark Law."

In accordance with the provisions of the "Trademark Law" and the "Regulations for the Implementation of the Trademark Law," the State Administration for Industry and Commerce formulated or revised several administrative rules and regulations, including the "Trademark Assessment Rules," "Provisions on the Recognition and Protection of well-known Trademarks," "Procedures for the Management and Registration of Collective Trademarks and Certification Trademarks," "Procedures for the Implementation of the Madrid Agreement for the International Registration of Trademarks and "Procedures for the Administration of the Printing of Trademarks."

As improvements are made to the legal system concerning trademarks and as the general public's awareness of trademarks is heightened, applications for trademark registration in China have soared in recent years. In 1980, applications for trademark registration were only a little more than 20,000. The number reached 132,000 in 1993. In the four years from 2000 to 2004, applications for trademark registration quickly exceeded the key marks of 200,000, 300,000, 400,000 and 500,000 and came to 1,906,000 finally. It means an additional 256,000 applications were submitted in these four years over the total submitted during the 20 years from 1980 to 1999. It accounts for 53.6 per cent of the total number of applications submitted from 1980 to 2004. In 2004, 588,000 applications were filed for trademark registration, 136,000 more than the previous year and an increase of 30 per cent. The number of applications in 2004 was 2.17 times that in 2001, when China joined the WTO. By the end of 2004, China had had 2,240,000 registered trademarks.

As the investment environment in China has constantly improved, especially after China joined the WTO, both the number of applications for trademark registration from foreigners and the number of registered foreign trademarks have kept increasing. In 1982, there were 1,565 foreign applications for trademark registration in China. The number exceeded 20,000 in 1993 and exceeded 60,000 in 2004. Before 1979, only 20 countries and regions had 5,130 trademarks registered in China. By the end of 2004, 129 countries and regions had had 403,000 trademarks registered in China, almost a 79-fold increase over that in 1979, accounting for 18 per cent of the total number of registered trademarks in China.

China has actively fulfilled its obligations to protect internationally well-known trademarks since it joined the "Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property." In handling cases involving objections and disputes over ownership of trademarks as well as trademark management, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce has certified more than 400 well-known trademarks, effectively protecting according to law the legitimate rights and interests of owners of foreign and Chinese well-known trademarks. In 2004 alone, it certified and offered protection to 153 well-known trademarks, of which 28 were brand-names of foreign enterprises. Meanwhile, administrative organs of industry and commerce at all levels regard the protection of well-known trademarks as their priority and have made greater efforts to protect them. They have severely cracked down on all kinds of illegal acts that have infringed upon the rights and interests of well-known trademarks.

For years, administrative organs of industry and commerce at all levels across China have fully exploited their advantages in trademark administrative law enforcement: Complete networks, simple procedures and high efficiency. Focusing on the protection of the right to exclusive use of registered trademarks and dutifully carrying out their responsibilities, they have investigated and dealt with a large number of trademark infringement and counterfeiting cases, effectively protecting the right to exclusive use of registered trademarks of both foreign and domestic trademark owners and safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. From 2001 to 2004, administrative organs of industry and commerce at all levels across China dealt with 169,600 cases that violated trademark laws and regulations. Of these, 113,000 cases involved trademark infringement and counterfeiting (12,000 cases involved foreign trademarks) and 56,600 cases were other types of violations of trademark laws and regulations. They confiscated and destroyed 529 million pieces (sets) of counterfeiting trademark logos and transferred 286 cases involving 300 people to judicial organs to pursue their criminal responsibilities. In 2004, in accordance with the unified plan and arrangement of the State Council on IPR protection and that of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce on the protection of the right to exclusive use of registered trademarks, administrative organs of industry and commerce at all levels across China launched three special campaigns that focused on the protection of well-known and foreign-related trademarks and on dealing with infringements of trademarks of food and medicine. The campaigns effectively protected the right to exclusive use of registered trademarks. According to statistics, in 2004, administrative organs of industry and commerce across China investigated and dealt with 51,851 law-violation cases involving trademarks. Of these, 5,494 concerned foreign trademarks, a 1.6-fold increase over that in 2003. Of the 51,851 cases they investigated, 11,680 were common violations of the trademark laws and regulations. The rest of the cases, altogether 40,171, involved trademark infringement or counterfeiting, an increase of 51.66 per cent over 2003. They confiscated and disposed of 38,951,800 pieces (sets) of illegal trademark logos, confiscated 280,800 tools such as molds and press plates used for the infringement and confiscated and destroyed 5638.53 tons of items that had been used for the infringement. They transferred to judicial organs 96 cases involving 82 people to pursue their legal responsibilities.