Recently, the office of State Forestry Administration (hereinafter SFA) issued 2016 Implementation Plan for Forestry to accelerating the building of intellectual property power (hereinafter the plan), which proposed 15 key tasks and working measures.
The major tasks of intellectual property for forestry include: advancing the amendment of regulations on Protection of New Varieties of Plants and implementation rules; launching special actions against infringements of new varieties of plants, focusing on the investigation and settlement of infringement of plant varieties and counterfeit cases; safeguarding the rights of owners of plant varieties; establishing the examination and protection of forestry products and geographic indications; advancing the commercialization of intellectual property in forestry and the establishment of forestry intellectual property alliance; improving the DUS testing system, database of known varieties, and formulation of guidelines for testing forestry new varieties. Further improvement will be made in the information management system for new varieties of plants applications by regulating the examination and grating of plant variety rights.
The plan made it clear that China will enhance cooperation with relevant international associations, including International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, as well as participation in the making of international intellectual property rules.
