Apart from criminal and civil laws that are already in force, China is deliberating on incorporating administrative law to further enhance intellectual property rights (IPR) protection in the country.

The information was released at a national forum on Trade- Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and judicial review, which ended Monday at Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.

The forum attracted more than 30 scholars and judges on administrative law and they had a detailed discussion on a newly- drafted law on administrative IPR violation cases released by the Supreme People's Court.

Zhao Daguang, Chief Judge of the Administrative Court under the Supreme People's Court, said the new judicial explanation may help solve IPR infringement cases that are applicable to both administrative and civil laws, and better safeguard the interests of IPR owners and ensure lawful enforcement of administrative power.

China's existing administrative law has failed to observe those IPR violation cases that involve both administrative and civil laws. The newly-drafted law aims to clarify the ruling scope, trial regulations and jurisdictional method of administrative IPR cases.

According to Zhao, Chinese courts have accepted an increasing number of IPR violation cases in recent years. In 2004 alone, they handled 12,000 IPR violation cases, up 31.65 percent from the previous year.

Though there is no fixed timetable, the law will be introduced as soon as possible. Zhao said.

Hu Jianmiao, a law professor and vice president at Zhejiang University, said China's laws on IPR were inadequate and the country's intellectual property infringement remains a haunting problem. The introduction of the newly-drafted law will further improve Chinese court's capability of handling IPR violation cases.

The forum was jointly sponsored by the Administrative Court under the Supreme People's Court and the Asian Development Bank.

Source: Xinhua