Opportunities and challenges of internationalization of intellectual property law

With the development of economic globalization, the internationalization of intellectual property law has become an important guarantee for our country to participate in international market competition. Since the reform and opening up, my country has continuously constructed and improved its intellectual property legal system and gradually realized the localization of intellectual property laws. At the beginning of the 21st century, after China joined the World Trade Organization, it took only five years to achieve the integration of its intellectual property legal system with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), and became a party to a number of international intellectual property treaties. , marking the successful transformation of intellectual property law from localization to internationalization.

The internationalization of intellectual property law refers to the convergence of the basic principles and main rules of intellectual property legal norms on a global scale, although this does not mean the complete unification of the specific content of global intellectual property legal norms. For a long time, Western capitalist countries have pursued an international protection strategy for intellectual property, aiming to realize the economic benefits of scientific and technological achievements and the intellectualization of economic development through the monopoly characteristics of intellectual property. For our country, the internationalization of intellectual property law not only brings institutional challenges, but also provides opportunities for development.

Specifically, the challenge to our country from the internationalization of intellectual property law is that the level of protection in international conventions such as the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights exceeds our country’s economic development needs when it joins these conventions. One-sided pursuit of internationalization may lead to constraints on the economic development of local industries. For example, in the early 1990s, because my country needed to join the Universal Copyright Convention but did not revise the Copyright Law in a timely manner, this resulted in the phenomenon of “super national treatment” and “super international standards”, which affected the creative enthusiasm of domestic authors. .

However, at the end of the 20th century, my country accepted the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and revised laws and regulations such as the Copyright Law, Patent Law, and Trademark Law to achieve integration with international rules. It has created conditions for my country to join the World Trade Organization and integrate into the world economic system, and also provided legal protection for the rapid economic development since the 21st century. Strengthening intellectual property protection is not only a need to achieve sustained economic growth, but also the basis for scientific and technological progress.

In order to cope with the opportunities and challenges in the internationalization of intellectual property law, our country has formulated corresponding strategic measures according to different development stages. On the one hand, we must abide by the provisions of international conventions and protect foreign high and new technologies; on the other hand, we must also promote international cooperation and protect our country’s traditional knowledge. In the past, our country lacked formal representative qualifications in international intellectual property organizations and could only participate in relevant treaty negotiations as an observer. But now, our country not only has legal representative status, but also can directly participate in the formulation of rules. Through the “One Belt, One Road” initiative, China is actively promoting regional economic integration and building a more fair and reasonable new order for international intellectual property protection.

In short, the internationalization path of my country’s intellectual property law in the future will be based on local national conditions, actively participate in building a new international intellectual property protection system, enhance comprehensive national strength, and help realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.