With the increasing trend of economic globalization, the internationalization level of my country’s intellectual property law has been continuously improved. Since the reform and opening up, my country has gradually realized the fundamentalization of intellectual property law after a long period of institutional construction and rule improvement. At the beginning of the 21st century, after joining the World Trade Organization, China took only more than 5 years to fully realize the alignment of the intellectual property legal system with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, and became a party to major international intellectual property treaties and conventions, basically completing the transformation of intellectual property law from localization to internationalization. In the future, my country’s intellectual property law will undoubtedly continue to move forward along the development trend of internationalization, continuously enhance its voice in the formulation of international intellectual property rules, make a “Chinese voice” for the internationalization of intellectual property, and make a “Chinese decision” for the internationalization of intellectual property.
The internationalization of intellectual property law refers to the universality of the basic principles and main rules of intellectual property legal norms in the world, with the convergence and integration of intellectual property systems of various countries as its basic characteristics, but this does not mean the unification of global intellectual property legal norms in terms of protection content, protection standards, protection levels, etc.
For a long time, Western capitalist countries have actively promoted the protection strategy of internationalization of intellectual property rights. Its essence is to use the monopoly nature of intellectual property rights to achieve the efficiency of scientific and technological achievements and the knowledge-based economic development. For my country, the internationalization of intellectual property law is both a challenge to the system and an opportunity for development. As Professor Zheng Chengsi said: “We should see the disadvantages of strengthening intellectual property protection in globalization, and we should also see the important role of ‘protection’ in building an innovative country.”
Specifically, the challenge of the internationalization of intellectual property law to my country is mainly reflected in the fact that the protection level of international conventions such as the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights exceeds the economic development needs of my country when it joined the convention. The one-sided pursuit of the internationalization of intellectual property law and the adoption of a strong intellectual property protection model will inevitably restrict the development of the local industrial economy.
Especially in the early 1990s, because my country needed to join the World Copyright Convention but failed to revise the Copyright Law in time, there appeared “super-national treatment” and “super-international standards” in copyright protection, such as “the provisions on the protection of applied art works apply to foreigners but not to nationals”, which is undoubtedly a discrimination against domestic authors and greatly affects their creative enthusiasm. However, we must realize that for my country, the internationalization of intellectual property rights brings more development opportunities.
At the end of the 20th century, my country accepted the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and revised various intellectual property laws and regulations, including the Copyright Law, the Patent Law, and the Trademark Law, to align intellectual property law with international rules, creating conditions for my country to join the World Trade Organization and integrate into the world economic and trade system, and providing legal protection and institutional support for my country’s rapid economic and social development since the 21st century. Strengthening intellectual property protection is also an inherent requirement for achieving sustained economic development and rapid scientific progress.
Faced with the opportunities and challenges of the internationalization of intellectual property law, my country should formulate different strategic measures according to different development stages, taking into account both practical interests and forward-looking vision; it should comply with international conventions and protect foreign high-tech, and also promote international cooperation and protect my country’s traditional knowledge.