China has unveiled an action plan on the construction of an intellectual property (IP) protection system with a view to strengthening its efforts in the field.
The plan was released by the China National Intellectual Property Administration, together with the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP), the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Commerce, the General Administration of Customs, and the State Administration for Market Regulation.
The action plan said that by 2035, the modernization of the IP protection system and capabilities will have been achieved in the country, and a modern governance system for IP protection, characterized by the government fulfilling its responsibilities, strict supervision and regulation by law enforcement departments, impartial adjudication by judicial departments, regulated management by business entities, self-discipline and self-regulation by industry organizations, and integrity and law abidance by the public, will have taken shape.
The action plan emphasized the need to improve the procuratorial mechanism for IP protection and the promotion of the comprehensive performance of procuratorial duties in this regard.
More efforts will be made to enhance the supervision of civil and administrative litigation in terms of intellectual property, continuously advancing the punishment of malicious litigation, and steadily exploring public interest litigation in IP, it said.
Speaking at a press conference on May 28 to interpret the action plan and update the latest progress in IP protection work, an official from the Procuratorial Office of Intellectual Property of the SPP briefed on the achievements SPP has made since July 2022 in organizing special supervision to combat malicious IP litigation, as well as typical cases handled in the fields of patents, trademarks, and copyrights, among others.
He said that in the next step, procuratorial organs will carry out special campaigns on a regular basis, strengthen overall coordination and promotion, and continuously study the details of relevant cases.
The procuratorial organs will establish a sound long-term mechanism to prevent and combat malicious IP litigation, improve law enforcement and judicial information sharing, and collaboratively promote industry governance, comprehensive governance and litigation source governance, he added.
