At a recent routine press conference for the month of June, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released a white book titled IPR Protection in China 2022, which exhibits further ascension of public satisfaction over China's IPR protection to 81.25 reading points (note: perfect score 100 points; statistics not involving Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) and generally maintaining a healthy momentum.

"The steady uptick of the public satisfaction over IPR protection clearly implies that our IPR protection work has been widely acknowledged by the general public," Zhang Zhicheng, CNIPA Spokesperson and Director General of IP Protection Department interpreted that compared with the results from the early 13th five-year plan period, the biggest climb in satisfaction points happens with the general public group among the three surveyed groups- IP right holders, general public and professionals; significant rise can also be found among companies of various sorts, which are enough to prove IPR protection is delivering positive impact on building a sound environment for doing business and promoting high-standard opening up to the outside world.

Overall quality hike in rule by law

In 2022, three IPR-related legislations went into effect after revision; two judicial interpretations on IPR protection were enacted… A string of data from the white book are the highlights of China's efforts last year in achieving progress in many areas of work by strengthening the foundation of rule by law, deepening IPR protection institutional and mechanism reform, keeping bolstering protection over the entire IPR pipeline, hardening the security shield in the IPR field, and performing public education on IPR protection widely.

In the meantime, China has continued to dig into the performance of court trials and administrative enforcement, and keep bolstering the work of IPR civil, administrative and criminal trials; mounted a raft of administrative enforcement campaigns to heighten IPR protection in key areas like patent and trademark and in key nodes like customs and internet marketplace; improved IPR dispute settlement protocols to set up 'multiple lanes' for IPR dispute resolution.

Quality development of IPR judicial service has paid dividends. According to Ding Guangyu, Deputy Chief Judge of No.3 Civil Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court, the people's court system has strengthened patent and technology trials across the board to inspire technological innovation and self-reliance. In 2022, people's courts nationwide received 526,165 new IPR cases of all types with first-trial patent civil cases surging 23.25% year-on-year and first trial technological contract cases rising 5.55%.

Trademark, patent and other violations have been combated by using the market regulators' advantages in comprehensive law enforcement. According to Tong Bo, Deputy Director General of Enforcement and Check Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), the SAMR has delivered heavy blows to infringements and other violations in a bid to uphold the environment for innovation. In 2022, administrations for market regulation nationwide investigated 43,500 trademark, patent and other cases and transferred over 1,000 cases suspected of criminal infraction to judicial authorities.

The IPR protection work on forestry and grassland has been advanced by developing new varieties of plants. Gong Yumei, Deputy Director General of Science and Development Center of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration noted that in 2022, the number of applications of new varieties of plants in China hit record-high to 1,828, up 27%, with 651 of them granted rights.

"Unleashing the strength of mediation affords right holders more alternatives and ease when enforcing their rights," Zhang elaborated that there are over 1,700 people's mediation organizations for IPR disputes, which received over 20,000 cases in the first quarter of 2023 and resolved over 16,000 via internet. It takes 28 days on average to finish a case, a very efficient way to defuse loads of conflicts in a short period of time.

Concept of rule by law executed by authorities

Enhancing IPR protection under the concept of rule by law requires futuristic thinking and both treatment of the symptoms and cure, especially the latter action. At the press conference, the spotlight is on IPR litigation source governance.

IPR litigation source governance places non-litigation dispute settlement mechanism at the front to promote diversified paths for snuffing out IPR disputes. The white book shows in the past year, the IP administration system and the people's court system worked together to build an online mediation system that links administrative and judicial authorities and to materialize the founding of IPR mediation organizations in 30 regions of the country. For IPR disputes with foreign elements, high courts in Shanghai, Fujian and Hainan have collaborated with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in setting up their local arbitration and mediation systems.

IPR litigation source governance also advocates joint reform and innovation and advances continuous optimization of the grand scheme of IPR protection. According to the white book, judicial and administrative authorities advanced construction of data and information sharing mechanisms to refine linkage mechanisms between them. Multiple agencies released a document on work linkage of IPR verification to help build a work system regarding verification of IPR infringement disputes.

"Building a modern socialist country in all respects calls for better advancement of work in IPR protection," Zhang summarized that the CNIPA will always place people's satisfaction as a pivot measuring stick for our work and dedicate all our strength into IPR protection. (by Li Yangfang)