At the end of the 20th century, in order to integrate into the world economic and trade system, my country began to revise various intellectual property laws and regulations. By 2001, when my country officially became a member of the World Trade Organization, the Patent Law (revised in 2000), the Copyright Law (revised in 2001), and the Trademark Law (revised in 2001) and other intellectual property laws and regulations had been revised.
Specifically, after the revision of the Patent Law in 2000, it added provisions on promise of sale, pre-litigation interim measures, and calculation of infringement compensation, redefined the scope of service inventions, clarified the rewards for service inventions, simplified the procedures for patent approval and protection, and made my country’s patent system consistent with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights; after the revision of the Copyright Law in 2001, it not only expanded the objects of copyright protection, but also included acrobatic works of art, architectural works and original databases into the scope of copyright protection, added three copyright property rights: rental right, screening right, and information network dissemination right, added provisions on statutory licensing of textbooks, clarified the legal status of copyright collective management institutions, and added statutory compensation and other infringement relief provisions; after the revision of the Trademark Law in 2001, it expanded the scope of application for copyright protection, It has expanded the scope of the subject of trademark application, increased the scope of the object of trademark protection, strengthened the protection of well-known trademarks, added relevant provisions for malicious preemptive registration, increased the penalties for infringement, and basically achieved unification and compliance with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.
In addition, other intellectual property laws and regulations such as the Regulations on the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, the Regulations on the Protection of Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits, and the Regulations on the Protection of Geographical Indication Products were also issued in 1997, 2001, and 2005, respectively. So far, my country has initially established an intellectual property legal system. Entering the 21st century, with the further improvement of the internationalization level of my country’s intellectual property laws, especially since the implementation of the Outline of the National Intellectual Property Strategy in 2008, intellectual property has been elevated to the level of national strategy.
In order to promote innovation-driven With the development of the industry, my country’s Patent Law (Copyright Law, Trademark Law and Anti-Unfair Competition Law) was revised in 2008 and 2010 respectively. It was revised again in 2013 and 2017 to provide legal protection for the construction of an innovative country. The revised Patent Law has increased the penalties for infringement of patent rights, expanded the scope of application of autonomy of will, added special provisions for the utilization of genetic resources, and established a patent compulsory licensing system; the revised (Trademark Law) has clarified the “one mark, multiple categories” application method by incorporating “sound” into the category of protected objects.
The trademark registration objection system has been improved, the protection of well-known trademarks and unregistered trademarks has been strengthened, the punitive compensation system has been introduced, and the statutory compensation for infringement has been increased, making the trademark legal system more perfect; the Anti-Unfair Competition Law has also been improved on the basis of the original law. Many revisions have been made on the basis of the revised Anti-Unfair Competition Law, such as improving the “General Terms” and adding special “Internet Anti-Unfair Competition” provisions. Although there are still shortcomings, the revised Anti-Unfair Competition Law is undoubtedly more perfect and more in line with actual needs; in response to the needs of innovation and development, the Copyright Law revised in 2010 added copyright pledge registration provisions. The main reason for the revision of the Copyright Law this time is that the World Trade Organization expert group ruled in 2009 that Article 4 of my country’s Copyright Law was not in line with the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. The revised Article 4 of the Copyright Law changed the original practice of “works prohibited from publication and dissemination according to law are not protected by copyright law”, and stipulated that prohibited works enjoy certain copyrights, but the exercise of their copyrights should be strictly restricted. In the future, my country’s intellectual property legal system is bound to be more perfect and mature, providing institutional support for building a strong intellectual property country.