"China has always attached great importance and been actively committed to intellectual property (IP) protection, which provided effective support for improving innovation and advancing high-quality development. While stepping up its work on IP, China has been deeply engaged in international IP cooperation，" said Wang Wenbin, China's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, at a regular press conference recently.

China continues to optimize IP protection. The proportion of patentees experiencing patent infringement sheds to a historical low. Only 7.7% of Chinese patentees had experience in infringement in 2022 - the second straight year with a sub-8% reading, according to China Patent Investigation Report 2022. Corporate patentees have a more diverse toolkit to enforce their right after being infringed. In 2022, 72.7% of them chose to respond after being infringed, maintaining on the plus side of 70% for the fourth consecutive year. In recent years, an increasing number of Chinese applicants have been making foreign countries destinations for their patent applications.

In addition, patent infringement cases with big-ticket damages awarded are mounting. In 2022, 7.0% of all patent infringement cases scored awards – whether through court decision, mediation or out-of-court settlement – bigger than 5 million yuan, sitting above 7% for the second straight year. With patentees on the way to be well versed in punitive damage system for patent infringement, the idea of strict IP protection has been finding home in people's hearts.

Innovation is booming in China with its constantly refined IP protection setting. WIPO's (World Intellectual Property Organization) Global Innovation Index 2022 ranks China 11th up from 34th in 2012. According to another WIPO finding - the World Intellectual Property Indicators 2022, China paces the world in number of valid patents in 2021.

China profoundly participates in IP international cooperation. China has officially acceded to the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs and the Marrakesh Treaty of the copyright sector. China and the European Union (EU) concluded an agreement on geographical indications (GIs) protection and cooperation, providing mutual recognition and protection of 244 GIs. The Chinese language is one of the working languages of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. China's IP global involvement greatly supported the Belt and Road Initiative. In 2022, 37.9% of the Chinese companies which transferred or licensed patents to overseas partners did so with countries or regions along the Belt and Road. In 2022, the global IP governance index of China stood at 114.1, up 14.1 reading points over the previous year, according to 2022 Evaluation Report on China's IP Development.

In addition, China has become an important driving force for global green, low-carbon technology innovation, and ended up being the biggest green tech patenting destination along with the United States. From 2016 to 2021, the China National Intellectual Property Administration paced all its IP5 partners from the U.S., Japan, Europe and Republic of Korea with 379,000 or 41.2% green-tech patent applications published.

"These achievements show that China's efforts have paid off in enhancing IP protection and pursuing innovation-driven development, and contributed to global innovation. China will continue to speed up efforts to implement the innovation-driven development strategy, uphold the central role of innovation in the overall modernization drive, enhance international exchange and cooperation and share China's innovation with the rest of the world," Wang added.

Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) stacked with self-reliant IPRs

Marrakesh Treaty effective in China

Exhibitors access to IP protection service

Lycium dasystemum Pojark has become a GI recognized by both China and EU