Along with its progress in reform and opening up, China has made big strides in intellectual property protection. In accordance with its national conditions and current tendencies in international development, China has formulated and finetuned various laws and regulations on intellectual property protection, thereby constructing a socialist legal system for intellectual property protection with Chinese characteristics. The scope of the intellectual property rights protected in China and the degree of protection afforded have gradually conformed with international practices and the high degree of legal protection for intellectual property rights has been realized.
Effective as of March 1983, the Trademark Law of the People's
Republic of China and the rules for its implementation set forth the principles of
application, examination and registration in trademark registration procedures which are
entirely identical with common international principles. In order to meet the requirements
of the reform and opening up and of economic development, to more effectively crack down
on trademark counterfeiting and stop acts of infringement, and to conscientiously protect
the right to exclusive use of a registered trademark, in 1993 China revised both its
Trademark Law and the rules for its implementation to expand the range of trademarks
protected. Regulations on commodity trademarks were joined by regulations on the
registration and
The Patent Law of the People's Republic of China and the rules for
its implementation came into effect in April 1985, expanding the scope of intellectual
property protection in China to include inventions and other new creations. In order to
bring the level of China's patent protection closer to international standards, the
Standing Committee of the National People's Congress adopted an amendment to the Patent
Law on September 4, 1992, which included important revisions. Proceeding from the needs of
expanding the opening up and accelerating scientific, technological and economic
development, first, the revised Patent Law expands the scope of patent protection: patents
may be granted to all types of technological inventions, whether new products or new
techniques, including pharmaceutical products and substances obtained by means of a
chemical process, foods, beverages and flavourings. Second, an invention patent's duration
has been extended from 15 years from the date of application to 20 years; the duration of
utility
The Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China and the rules
for its implementation explicitly protect the copyright and other legitimate rights and
interests of the authors of literary, artistic and scientific works. The law provides that
in addition to protecting the copyright of written works, oral works, music, operas, quyi
(folk art forms including ballad singing, story telling, comic dialogues, clapper talks,
cross talks, etc), choreography, works of fine arts, photographs, films, TV programmes,
video tapes, engineering designs, product designs and their descriptions, maps, sketch
maps and other graphic works, China also protects computer software. China is among a
select group of countries that have explicitly listed computer software as the object of
protection by copyright laws. The State Council has, moreover, promulgated the Regulations
on the Protection of Computer Software, providing the specifics whereby the laws
protecting computer software will be implemented. These regulations, a necessary adjunct
to the Copyright Law, came into effect in October 1991. On September 25, 1992 the State
Council promulgated the Regulations on the Implementation of the International Copyright
Treaty, providing specific regulations on protecting foreign authors'
These laws and regulations have been joined by the Technological Contract Law of the People's Republic of China and the Law on Scientific and Technological Progress of the People's Republic of China as formulated by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, as well as a series of administrative regulations concerning intellectual property protection worked out by the State Council, together further optimizing the nation's legal system for the protection of intellectual property rights, in the whole bringing the system close to and in coordination with international levels of protection.
China has a complete legal system for the protection of intellectual property rights. China's intellectual property law stipulates the legal responsibilities to be borne by anyone who violates the law, including civil liability, criminal liability and exposure to administrative sanctions.
China's Patent Law provides that in the case of infringement arising from the exploitation of a patent without authorization of the patentee, the patentee or other affected parties may request the patent administrative authorities to deal with the matter or may directly file suit in a people's court. In investigating and dealing with the matter, the patent administrative authorities are empowered to order the infringer to stop all acts of infringement and compensate for any losses. Whoever counterfeits a patented product or wrongly appropriates a patented technique will be ordered by the patent administrative authorities to cease all acts of counterfeiting, to provide the public with notification of his or her violation, and to pay a fine. In the case of serious violations, the criminal liability of the person directly responsible shall be investigated through application of relevant articles of the Criminal Law, and if found guilty, the person directly responsible shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or a fine.
China's trademark laws and regulations stipulate that in the event
of infringement on the right to exclusive use of a registered trademark, the
administrative department for industry and commerce can, in line with its functions and
powers or on the basis of a consumer complaint, examine and deal with the violation on its
own initiative. The party whose right has been infringed may also, at the place where the
infringer lives or where the act of infringement took place, request an administrative
department for industry and commerce at or above the county level to handle the matter.
The relevant administrative department for industry and commerce has the right to order
the infringer to immediately cease infringement and to compensate the party whose right
has been infringed for its losses. If the act of infringement on the right to exclusive
use of a registered trademark does not constitute a crime, the administrative department
for industry and commerce may still impose a fine on the infringer. If the party concerned
wishes to challenge the decision of the administrative department for industry and
commerce, it may bring suit in a people's court within a fixed time and the court will
render judgement on the case. These regulations provide convenience to the litigants, and,
moreover, ensure consistency, impartiality and seriousness in administrative law
enforcement and judicial adjudication. In the event of an infringement on the right to
exclusive use of a registered trademark, the party whose right has been infringed may also
directly bring suit in a people's court. If the counterfeiting of registered trademarks
constitutes a crime, the person who committed the act shall be ordered to compensate the
party whose right has been infringed for losses suffered and his criminal responsibility
shall be investigated and dealt with in accordance with the law. In accordance with the
Supplementary Regulations on Punishing Criminal Counterfeiting of Registered Trademarks,
in cases where the illegal gains are relatively large or other serious circumstances are
involved the counterfeiter of a registered trademark will be
The Copyright Law of China provides that the following acts shall be
regarded as infringement: publication of a copyright owner's work without his or her
permission, and the unauthorized publication of a cooperative work as the work of a single
author; claiming authorship of another person's work without taking part in its creation
with the intention of gaining fame or profit; distortion or alteration of another person's
works; exploitation of an author's work in any manner without prior permission; the use of
another's work without providing the legally stipulated payment; and live broadcast of a
performance without the performer's prior permission. In such cases, the infringer shall
bear civil responsibility for the cessation of the infringement, for the elimination of
any negative effects caused by his actions, for offering a public apology, and for
compensation for any losses. Those who plagiarize other people's works, or reproduce and
distribute another person's works for their personal benefit without the copyright
holder's permission, those who publish a book without the permission of the owner of the
publishing right, and those who duplicate and distribute video and audio tapes without
getting the permission of the tape manufacturers bear civil responsibility for their
actions. The copyright administrative authorities may
With the implementation of intellectual property laws, intellectual
property rights are effectively protected in China. These laws are also actively
encouraging invention and other forms of creation and fair competition. For instance, the
protection of the right to the exclusive use of registered trademarks has resulted in the
rapid growth of the number of trademarks registered by Chinese and foreign businessmen in
China. By the end of 1993, the number of effective registered trademarks had exceeded
410,000. Of these, 350,000 were domestic, with the remaining 60,000 coming from 67
countries and regions. Companies from the United States, for example, had only 122
trademarks registered in China before 1979; by 1993 that number had soared to 16,221, more
than a hundred times the earlier figure. In 1993, there were 170,000 applications for
trademark registration annually in China, including more than 130,000 applications for new
trademarks registration, among the highest number in the world. In addition, the Patent
Law of China has greatly encouraged inventions and other creations in China, and has
proved a magnet to patent applications from other countries and regions. On April 1, 1985,
the first day the Patent Law came into effect, 3,455 applications for patent rights were
submitted. By the end of 1993, the Patent Office of China had handled over 360,000
applications for patent rights. Of those, 27.5 percent were for inventions, 62.8 percent
for utility models, and 9.7 percent for