Current situation and challenges of intellectual property protection in China
In recent years, with the country’s great attention and the active participation of all sectors of society, China’s intellectual property protection work has achieved remarkable results. On April 26, 2018, the “2018 Social Satisfaction Survey Report on Intellectual Property Protection” released by the State Intellectual Property Office showed that social satisfaction with my country’s intellectual property protection increased from 63.69 points in 2012 to 76.88 points in 2018. It scored 13.19 points, indicating that the whole game has entered a good stage.
On June 28 of the same year, the State Council Information Office published the white paper “China and the World Trade Organization”, which was the first white paper issued by China on this topic. The white paper mentioned that China has effectively fulfilled its intellectual property protection commitments made when joining the WTO, and emphasized that strengthening intellectual property protection is China’s initiative. The Chinese government believes that strengthening intellectual property protection will not only help improve its economic competitiveness, but also provide a fairer and legalized business environment for domestic and foreign enterprises.
At the same time, China is committed to building a complete legal system for intellectual property protection. After joining the WTO, China actively absorbed advanced international legislative experience and revised a number of laws and regulations to adapt to new needs. For example, the revision of the Trademark Law added a system of punitive damages; the revision of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law further improved the protection measures for trade secrets and clarified the concept of market confusion. Currently, China is accelerating the revision process of important laws such as the Patent Law and the Copyright Law.
However, while making achievements, China still faces many challenges in intellectual property protection. Among them, the problem of “difficulty in law enforcement” is particularly prominent. On the one hand, due to the influence of traditional culture and the weak concept of the rule of law, many infringements cannot be dealt with in a timely and effective manner. On the other hand, the inaction or lack of action by intellectual property law enforcement agencies also contributes to the occurrence of infringements to a certain extent.
In addition, the poor connection between administrative protection and judicial protection of intellectual property rights is also a major problem. Due to the unclear division of powers between relevant departments, it is difficult for rights holders to quickly find appropriate channels for help when facing infringement incidents.
It is worth noting that although China has established a relatively complete legal framework for intellectual property rights, its legislative work is relatively lagging behind and there is a lack of a guiding basic law, which makes the internal coordination of the current legal system insufficient. Especially with the rise of e-commerce, existing laws can no longer fully meet the needs of emerging fields.
Finally, people’s awareness of intellectual property rights is generally low, and both businesses and ordinary citizens have deficiencies in understanding and practice. Many people do not understand the importance of intellectual property rights and even participate in infringement activities intentionally or unintentionally. In addition, the lack of innovative spirit is also a problem that cannot be ignored. Some companies still do not fully realize the value of independent intellectual property rights.
In summary, although China has made great progress in intellectual property protection, it still needs to continue its efforts, especially in terms of enhancing public awareness, improving laws and regulations, and improving law enforcement efficiency.
Reference materials:
Basic Current Situation of Intellectual Property Protection in China
Main problems in intellectual property protection in China
Intellectual Property Awareness of Intellectual Property Protection in China