Recently, Chinese government issued Implementing Plan on Deepening the Reform of Scientific and Technical System (hereinafter the Implementing Plan) which demanded that all departments and regions should seriously carry out the Implementing Plan in light of regional reality.
According to the Implementing Plan, by 2020, China will be in the list of innovation oriented nations with breakthrough achievements in important fields. By 2030, China will have a more complete system for national innovation and will be on the ranking list of innovative countries in the worked.
In order to achieve this goal and to form the market environment which embraces justice, openness and transparency, push for the innovation and entrepreneurship of the public, China will put further efforts in protecting Intellectual property rights.
The following specific measures will be implemented:
1. IP-related laws will be improved. Studies will be made to lower the threshold of criminal liabilities, adjust the standard of damages, explore the possibilities of punitive damages, perfecting the protection mechanism of right holders and dividing fairly the burden of proof by concerned parties.
2. The legislative protection for trade secrets will be perfected by clearly defining trade secret and its infringement, developing relative protection measures, establishing the system of pre-trial protection.
3. IP courts in China will play a positive role in perfecting the judicial mechanism for intellectual property right by advancing the unification of intellectual property right (civil, administrative and criminal together). Moreover, IP courts will explore and establish the remote trial mechanism for cross-regional intellectual property cases.
4. In order to strengthen comprehensive administrative enforcement, China will improve the intellectual property investigation mechanism by enhancing the coordination between administrative enforcement and justice, and bringing the information of infringement into the social credit record.
5. China will also seek to establish a mechanism of protecting intellectual property rights owned by Chinese companies.
