President Xi Jinping stressed the importance of strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos Agenda on January 25, 2021, seeking to work with other countries to create an open, fair, equitable and non-discriminatory environment for scientific and technological progress.

Top-level design is the key to strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights. In recent years, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council have attached great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights. In particular, on November 30, Xi delivered an important speech outlining the fundamental principles of compliance and action to comprehensively strengthen IPR protection in the new era.

Successful law amendments

In the past few years, China has consistently amended laws, including the Trademark Law, the Patent Law, the Copyright Law, and the Anti-Monopoly Law. The Civil Code also provides a system of penalties for violations of intellectual property rights. In addition, in November 2019, the General Staff of the CPC Central Committee and the General Staff of the State Council issued "Conclusions on strengthening the protection of intellectual Property Rights", the purpose of which is to set goals for all regions and departments to work on the protection of intellectual property rights. In this regard, China has made great progress in building an intellectual property system that provides a solid institutional framework for strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights.

How should China make efforts to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in the future?

First, China should continue to improve the IP legal system by strengthening IP judicial protection and administrative enforcement.

Second, China should have a deep understanding of the conflict of interest between copyright holders and the public while strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights, and resolve conflicts appropriately by promoting intellectual property rights protection systems and supporting legal systems.

Last but not least, China should seize the opportunity of a new round of technological revolution and play an active role in transmitting Chinese wisdom to the formulation and improvement of international IPR rules and standards.