This June marked the fifth anniversary of the implementation of the Outline of National Intellectual Property Strategy (the Outline). Since the implementation of the Outline, China has achieved remarkable progress in creation, utilization, protection and management of IP. Such achievement was well recognized and endorsed by WIPO senior official.
The significant changes in IP from 2008-2012 in China are:
1. rapid improvement of IP creation abilities
The year 2012 witnessed new breakthroughs in patent applications and grants in China. There were 2.051 million applications and 1.255 million grants of patent applications, ranking first in the world in terms of patent applications for inventions. The valid patents for invention owned by domestic applicants exceeded those owned by foreign applicants for the first time.
By the end of 2012, SIPO received a total of 19,926 international applications under PCT, ranking the 4th in the world. ZTE, a leading company in providing telecommunications equipment and network solutions, was ranked first in the world for two consecutive years.
China also made great progresses in trademark applications. 1.648 million applications for trademark registration were filed in 2012, ranking the No.1 in the world. In 2012, a total of more than 688,000 copyright registrations for work and 139,000 software copyrights were registered. Ministry of Agriculture received more than 1,000 applications for plant variety throughout 2012 and State Forestry Administration received 148 applications for forestry variety rights.
2. Obvious advancement of IP Utilization
There were 88,505 records of patent licensing contracts between 2008 and 2012, and this number is expected to reach 100,000 in 2013. In the past five years, the proportion of patent utilization by the enterprises increased year by year, IP pledge financing developed rapidly. The number of the registration of patent pledge contracts increased for five consecutive years and 40 billion Renminbi yuan of pledge loan has been provided by the banks, an annual increase of 70%.
In 2012, 21.46 billion Renminbi yuan and 2.751 billion Renminbi yuan of pledge loan of trademark and copyright have been given respectively.
3. Great strengthening of IP protection
In the past five years, the Chinese government has strengthened IP protection and the IP environment has been continuously improved. In 2012, local courts around China received 87,419 IP civil cases of first instance. In 2012, national public security organs cracked 44,000 cases of IP infringement and counterfeiting with a total value of 11.31 billion Renminbi yuan. The national customs seized 15,000 batches of infringing goods and a total of 91 million products. The General Administration of Customs accepted 4,379 applications for IP recordation. The administrations for industry and commerce investigated 120,400 infringement and counterfeiting cases with 851 million Renninbi yuan. The IP offices accepted 2,510 patent disputes cases and 6,512 cases relating to passing-off of patent were investigated. A total of 282 online piracy cases were investigated and 129 websites were shut down by the copyright authority. Since the State Council launched the special campaign on cracking down IP infringement and counterfeit and shoddy goods, a favorable market environment has been continuously improved.
4. Enhancement of social IP awareness
In the past five years, IP-related departments created a new atmosphere for IP protection by means of social publicity, special training, media report, and lectures. Meanwhile, China launched IP Publicity Week nationwide. According to a social survey, 90% of the public is aware of the IP rights including patent, copyright, and trademark.
