General secretary xi attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights, emphasizing that “only strict protection of intellectual property rights can optimize the business environment and build new institutions for a more open economy”. In recent years, the party's central state council has continued to optimize top-level design and make major planning and deployments through the adoption of important policy documents, such as the programme for the construction of a strong intellectual property power (2021-2035) and the plan for the protection and application of intellectual property in the 14th five-year state. (b) strengthen intellectual property protection in a comprehensive manner, create a favourable business environment and sustain the high-quality development of domestic international trade。
Take steps to build intellectual property protection in highlands
The level of legalization of intellectual property protection is constantly improving. The civil code of the people's republic of china clearly defines the type of intellectual property and the general principle of compensation for tort. Amendment (xi) to the criminal law of the people's republic of china increases the penalties for offences relating to intellectual property rights such as trademarks, copyrights and commercial secrets. On 17 october 2020, the twenty-second session of the standing committee of the thirteenth national people's congress adopted the fourth amendment to the decision to amend the patent law of the people's republic of china. On 21 december 2023, premier li qiang of the state council signed an order of the state council promulgating the decision of the state council on the revision of the regulations for the application of the law of the people's republic of china on patents, effective 20 january 2024。
Strengthen source protection and improve the effectiveness of patent trademark review. The national intellectual property authority is constantly using new technologies to improve the efficiency of reviews, to carry out in-depth reforms to facilitate intellectual property reviews, to continuously optimize the review process and to innovate the review modalities. Currently, the average patent review cycle for inventions has been shortened to 16 months, with the first time the number of cases closed exceeding the value of the review. The average review cycle for trademark registrations has stabilized at four months and, generally, at seven months。
Improve the system of protection and strengthen the entire chain of protection of our intellectual property rights. Our intellectual property protection system continues to be well developed. Over the years, our country has continued to deploy a special intellectual property protection operation. The supreme people's court, the supreme people's procuratorate, the general customs administration, the state intellectual property authority, etc. Have issued guidance cases, typical cases and standard guidelines over the years to guide law enforcement and difficult cases. At the same time, we have continued to build a solid framework for intellectual property protection. To date, 112 intellectual property protection centres and fast-track defence centres have been built to provide “one-stop” services to enterprises in the areas of rapid intellectual property authorization, quick enforcement and rapid defence。
(c) speciality protection and comprehensive construction of intellectual property protection highlands. In 2022, with the agreement of the state council, the construction of a model national intellectual property protection area was officially launched. The construction of a model national intellectual property protection area is an innovative initiative with chinese characteristics worldwide. Through the construction of model zones, local intellectual property protection sites are being built, with the aim of providing city-driven provinces and departments with a nationwide approach to radiation protection, thus contributing to the improvement of national intellectual property protection capacities. To date, the national intellectual property agency has issued 25 national model intellectual property protection zones in two batches. The first of these is already under construction. Construction of the second batch is nearing completion。
International voice, our intellectual property evaluation continues okay
On 6 november 2023, the world intellectual property organization (wipo) published world intellectual property indicators 2023 (world intellectual property organization 2023, wipi), in which chinese innovators submit nearly half of the world's patent applications. China remains the largest user of the pct system, with the number of the world's 100-power cluster of science, technology and innovation for the first time leaping to the top in the world, and the great intellectual property power is firmly established. This year marks the fourth year of the implementation of the “1455” programme, four years of great development in the field of intellectual property rights in our country, which has seen a significant rise in the ranking of relevant international organizations, eminent think tanks, non-governmental organizations in the assessment and ranking of the business environment, innovation capabilities, competitive power and the development of intellectual property rights, as well as in the attention given to the annual intellectual property report of the major countries, which has won high ratings from international authoritative organizations and knowledgeable individuals。
The overall environment of our intellectual property rights has improved significantly. The eighth trade policy review of china, held at the world trade organization in 2021, recognized china's intellectual property protection efforts and considered that china had adopted a number of policy measures to implement intellectual property protection provisions and enhance its intellectual property protection capacity. According to the world intellectual property organization's global innovation index 2023, the global innovation landscape is shifting, with china maintaining its leading innovation position. Among the pillars, china's exports of creative products (creative goods reports), trademarks by origin, and practical new forms of innovation by origin are ranked highest globally. The former director-general of the world intellectual property organization (wipo), francis gao, also on several occasions, praised the development achievements of intellectual property protection in china and, in his interview, stated that “china meets the needs of the emerging economy, which is constantly adding value in terms of knowledge and intangible assets, through the building of its intellectual property infrastructure. We should recognize that this is a very remarkable thing. I think china did very well.”
Intellectual property innovation has risen dramatically. The world intellectual property report 2022 showed that a few economies, such as china, had become innovative sources in a number of technological areas and had been actively integrated into global innovation networks by contributing scientific knowledge, technology and technologically advanced products and equipment. The innovation index 2023 shows that china's innovation index is in the twelfth place globally, up one from 2022, but it is noteworthy that china is the only middle-income economy in the top 30 global innovation index. The 2023 world competitiveness rankings, published by the international institute for management and development (imd) in lausanne, switzerland, showed a marked increase in china's per capita number of patent applications and in the number of valid patent applications in 2023, demonstrating the country's continued strength in the area of science, technology and innovation, as well as the enormous energy that intellectual property holds。
Our intellectual property power in specialized areas is at the forefront of the world. The global innovation index 2023 shows that china outnumbers the united states in the ranking of the science and technology cluster and for the first time has the largest number of clusters, with 24 clusters. In the area of assistive technology, for example, the world intellectual property organization published trends in technology 2021: assistive technology, with china, the united states and japan being the three countries with the largest number of patent applications in the area of assistive technology, of which china has three times as many patent applications as the united states and japan. According to the european patent office's patent index report 2022, 1904 patent applications from china were received in 2022, reaching an all-time high of 15. 1 per cent over the same period, with the largest increase in 20 major patent applicant countries and territories. In terms of business rankings, of all enterprises that submitted patent applications to the european patent office in 2022, china ranked first in the number of patent applications, with a total of 4505 patents, representing an increase of more than 27 per cent over the same period. The survey of patent applications in the field of artificial intelligence, published by the japanese charter office in 2023, shows that the number of applications related to the core of artificial intelligence technology, as well as the number of pct applications, are on the rise, with the united states and china leading the way. China's g06n patent application in 2019 came mostly from universities, while in 2020 it was mainly from enterprises, and cooperative research in the field of production in ai is flourishing. On 1 march 2021, the united states national security committee on artificial intelligence presented to the united states congress the final report of the united states national security committee on artificial intelligence, which states that china is at the forefront of artificial intelligence development and is considered to be a leader in patent applications for artificial intelligence。
I've been able to develop my business environment
The guarantee of the rule of law was one of the important factors in optimizing the business environment, which enabled the sound functioning of the market economy. General secretary xi emphasized that “the rule of law is the best business environment”. As a concept of the rule of law, the continued improvement of its legal system is an important component of rule of law development, which will better contribute to the development of a rule of law business environment. The party's 20 major reports clearly state that “the basic systems of market economy, such as property rights protection, market access, fair competition, social credit, etc., have been improved to optimize the business environment” and that “the antimonopoly and anti-improper competition have been strengthened, local protection and administrative monopolies have been removed, and the healthy development of capital has been regulated and directed by law”。
In recent years, the intellectual property system has played an important role in the modernization of socialism, the protection of intellectual property rights has underpinned high-quality socio-economic development, the development of high-quality intellectual property rights has supported capacity-building in the international leading business environment, the capacity and confidence of innovation agents have increased significantly, the country's economy and society have grown steadily and the world economy continues to develop。
On 25 march 2022, the central state council of the cpc issued opinions on accelerating the construction of a national ununified market, of which seven relate to intellectual property rights, many of which relate to intellectual property litigation, jurisdiction, etc., and protection-related matters. In the current era of the knowledge-based economy, intellectual property rights have become an independent element in market-building practices, which have played an important central role in stimulating innovation, optimizing resource allocation and fair market competition. By protecting innovation outcomes, the intellectual property system stimulates the innovation enthusiasm of enterprises and individuals and promotes scientific and technological progress and economic development in society as a whole, thus facilitating the formation of dynamic markets. Through intellectual property disclosure mechanisms, market participants can gain a clearer understanding of the direction and potential value of technological innovation in order to determine accurately the break points of future innovation and help optimize market resource allocation and improve resource efficiency. In the course of enterprise development, intellectual property rights preserve a level playing field market environment by preventing unfair competition such as torts and monopolies。
Initiatives such as the increasing enforcement of intellectual property rights, the development of specialized initiatives, the soundness of defence assistance and dispute management mechanisms, and guidance on responding to overseas intellectual property disputes continue to stimulate the dynamism of market owners. The data on the main operators in the first three quarters of 2023 show that there has been a steady increase in the dynamism within the country's main operators. By the end of september 2023, there were more than 52 million registered private enterprises nationwide, representing 92. 3 per cent of the total. During the first three quarters, 7. 065 million new private enterprises were established nationwide, an increase of 15. 3 per cent over the previous three quarters. By the end of september 2023, there were 181 million registered operators nationwide, an increase of 6. 7 per cent over the end of 2022. In the foreign sector, 53,766 new enterprises were established by foreign direct investment in 2023, an increase of 39. 7 per cent over the previous year。
Intellectual property perfects fair competition in the market. General secretary xi stressed that better linkages between domestic and international markets and better use of both international and domestic markets for more robust and sustainable development, and that it was important to participate actively in the reform of the global economic governance system and promote a more equitable and equitable system of international economic governance. Fair competition is an important basis for international economic and trade transactions, and a fair competition regime is an important element of international economic and trade rules. Since the 18th congress of the party, 333 cases of monopolistic agreements and abuse of market dominance have been legally investigated, 5,249 cases of concentration of operators have been concluded, 255,000 cases of unfair competition have been legally investigated and a number of competition offences have been effectively prevented and stopped. We have signed 62 antimonopoly cooperation documents with antimonopoly law enforcement agencies in 35 countries and regions, including the united states and the european union, to enhance information exchange and legislative enforcement coordination. The establishment of a competition policy chapter in 11 multilateral ftas and the successful organization of the seventh international competition conference of brics countries have contributed to china's efforts to improve global competition governance and to enhance competitiveness and development in a more equitable international competition。
Concluding remarks
Intellectual property protection is a central element of innovative development and a cornerstone for the promotion of environmentally sound development for business. In his message to china on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of its cooperation with the world intellectual property organization (wipo) and the promotion of zhou's main event, secretary-general xi jinping stated that china has always attached great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights (iprs), the building of strong intellectual property rights, the strengthening of the legal and regulatory framework for intellectual property rights, the improvement of the system of intellectual property administration, the strengthening of the entire chain of intellectual property protection and the continuous optimization of the innovation and business environment. In recent years, the protection of intellectual property rights in our country has been increasing, satisfaction with intellectual property protection has been increasing and the level of intellectual property protection has been increasing. The various elements of judicial protection of intellectual property, administrative protection, arbitration and conciliation are effectively linked. Effective integration of intellectual property rights with innovative resources, industrial development, etc. International organizations continue to evaluate the work of our intellectual property rights. The rapid development of our intellectual property rights will further enhance confidence in china's marketization, rule of law and internationalized business environment for entrepreneurs, foreign markets and others. Our intellectual property rights work provides strong support and guarantees for high-quality development in the global economy. (ningsing, chen zai xin, li zheng, wang yi, da xiaoqi)
