CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) plays a key role in the modernization of the country's governance system and capability, high-quality development, the happiness of people's lives, the overall landscape of the country's opening up, and national security.
Since the 18th CPC National Congress, China has made historic achievements in IPR protection. In the future, how will we further build a holistic protection framework and comprehensively strengthen IPR protection? How to effectively promote the transformation of China's intellectual property work from being quantity-oriented to being quality-oriented? Following is CNIPA Commissioner Shen Changyu's interview with Xinhua News Agency.
Journalist: Could you share some major facts of China's historic achievements in intellectual property protection?
Shen Changyu: In the history of China's intellectual property development, it took us decades to go through the centuries-long development path of developed countries. We have achieved a historic leap from scratch and go from strength to strength, becoming a veritable strong country in intellectual property.
By the end of 2020, the number of invention patents per 10,000 population in China's mainland (excluding Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR and the Taiwan region) had reached 15.8, and the number of valid trademark registrations had reached 30.173 million, more than four times that of 2012. Core patents, well-known trademarks, top-quality copyrights and high-quality geographical indication products continue to increase.
The soaring in IPR strength has benefited from the continuous strengthening of China's intellectual property protection. Especially since the 18th CPC National Congress, China has made unprecedented efforts to protect IPR.
The newly enacted Civil Code has established major legal principles for IPR protection. The Patent Law, Trademark Law and Copyright Law have been amended and a punitive compensation system for infringement aligned with international high-standard level has been established, providing a strong legal guarantee for strict IPR protection.
Through the establishment of the State Administration for Market Regulation and the restructuring of the CNIPA, China has realized the centralized and unified management of patents, trademarks, geographical indications of origin, layout design of integrated circuits and the holistic enforcement of patents and trademarks. These efforts have greatly improved the administrative efficiency. The judicial protection of intellectual property has been significantly strengthened, thanks to the establishment of a number of intellectual property courts and the establishment of intellectual property court by the Supreme People's Court.
Also, China has continued to promote intellectual property review to improve quality and efficiency, and has effectively strengthened source protection. By the end of 2020, the examination cycle per invention patent will be reduced to 20 months as a whole and that of high-value patents will be reduced to 14 months. The average examination cycle for trademark registration applications was shortened to 4 months.
Survey results show that China has achieved remarkable results in building a holistic protection framework, with society's satisfaction on intellectual property protection increasing from 63.69 points in 2012 to 80.05 points (full mark: 100 points) in 2020.
Journalist: Entering a new developmental stage, how will we push forward the holistic protection framework for better IPR protection?
Shen Changyu: General Secretary Xi Jinping's important remarks have raised IPR protection to an unprecedented level. Standing at a new historical starting point, we should be crystal clear about the new stage of development, thoroughly implement the new development concept, apply a new vision of development, consciously integrate IPR protection into the big picture of the country's economic and social development, and provide strong support in all aspects.
The intellectual property system will use legal, administrative, economic, technological, social governance and other means to improve the protection system via examination and authorization, administrative law enforcement, judicial protection, arbitration and mediation, industry self-regulation, citizen integrity, and strengthen coordination and cooperation for a holistic protection approach.
We will create a working mechanism for the CNIPA to deal with patent infringement disputes that have great influence nationwide; continue to strengthen cooperation with public security, customs and other government departments to form a protection synergy; cooperate with the Supreme People's Court to push forward online litigation and mediation, and give full play to the important role of mediation in resolving intellectual property disputes.
To make IPR protection more efficient, the CNIPA has continuously improved the rapid cooperative protection mechanism for intellectual property in recent years. At present, more than 60 intellectual property protection centers and rapid rights protection centers have been set up nationwide, providing convenient, efficient and low-cost rights protection channels for market players. In the future, we will continue to optimize the construction layout of intellectual property protection centers and fast-track rights protection centers, and build another 20 or so intellectual property protection centers and fast rights protection centers within the year.
In the meantime, we will push forward the development of an overseas intellectual property dispute response guidance system. This year, we plan to set up another 10 or so local sub-centers of overseas intellectual property dispute response guidance centers. This also facilitates the development of overseas intellectual property information service platforms to provide high-level guidance and services for "going global" enterprises to effectively deal with overseas intellectual property disputes.
Journalist: What measures will be taken to effectively promote the transformation of intellectual property work from being quantity-oriented to being quality-oriented?
Shen Changyu: Entering a new developmental stage, it is a necessity for intellectual property work to effectively promote China's transformation from a big country in bringing in overseas intellectual property to a big country in creating intellectual property, and from the pursuit of quantity to the improvement of quality.
In recent years, China's intellectual property has initially achieved results in boosting high-quality development. According to a report released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, China's PCT international patent application volume ranked first in the world in 2019. Of the world's 5,000 leading brands, China accounts for 408, with a total value of 1.6 trillion US dollars. According to statistics, the added value of patent-intensive industries accounted for 11.6% of China's GDP in 2019.
In the future, intellectual property work should give more prominence to the theme of the times of high-quality development, emphasize the creation, protection, application, management and service of intellectual property with higher standards, and promote the steady progress and high-quality development of intellectual property at a higher starting point.
In recent years, the CNIPA has made overall plans to promote the improvement of patent quality, highlighting the quality orientation, improving the quality of patent applications, and maintaining strict authorization. We will comprehensively promote the improvement of patent quality in key areas of key industries, carry out patent navigation work, and vigorously promote the implementation of standards by enterprises, institutions, universities and scientific research institutions. In the future, we will continue to vigorously implement the patent quality improvement project, help solve bottleneck problems, align with the implementation of the industrial foundation rebuilding project, and promote the creation and reserve of relevant intellectual property. In the meantime, we will continue to implement the trademark brand strategy, start the implementation of the geographical indications mechanism to facilitate rural revitalization, and support high-quality economic development.(Journalist: Zhangquan)