China's IP development by numbers
On March 19, 1985, China formally acceded to the Paris Convention. The rapidly climbing figures over the past 25 years prove that engagement in the international intellectual property family has played an active role in the rapid and sound development of China’s intellectual property system, and show that China is becoming a more active intellectual property player in the world.
From April 1985 to January 2010, a total of 935,598 patent applications were received by the State Intellectual Property Office from overseas applicants, including 807,667 patent applications for inventions, 14,339 patent applications for utility models and 113,592 patent applications for designs
A a total of 442,335 patents were granted, including 332,671 patents for inventions, 11,528 patents for utility models and 98,136 patents for designs.
In 1994, China became a Patent Cooperation Treaty contracting state and filed only 103 PCT patent applications that year. In 2006, however, this number increased to nearly 4,000, ranking China eighth in the world.
In 2009, a total of 8,000 PCT patent applications were received by the State Intellectual Property Office, promoting China to fifth place. At the end of November 2009, a total of 4,159,900 trademarks had been registered in China: the number of trademark applications filed, trademark applications examined and effective registered trademarks place China first in the world.
In the same year, a total of 1,414,700 trademark applications were examined by China’s Trademark Office, up 88.69 percent on the previous year and matching the total number of applications made during the nearly five years up to the introduction of the expedited examination, which shortened the examination period to 17 months.
On September 30, 2009, the total number of international trademark applications filed by domestic businesses or individuals hit 9,477. As of 2009, the number of international trademark applications for territorial extension accepted by China ranks it first globally for the fifth year in a row.
The number of international trademark applications filed by Chinese businesses has ranked China in the top 10 globally and first among developing countries for five consecutive years. Since China joined the Paris Convention and formally stepped onto the international stage of intellectual property, it has attracted more and more industrial property from around the world.
In the meantime, Chinese businesses and individuals are speeding up their development of overseas business through the acquirement and use of intellectual property.
Revised copyright law
On February 26, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress approved the decision on revising China’s Copyright Law, in which two articles of the Copyright Law were changed. Article 4 was amended to say:
"Since China joined the Paris convention and formally stepped onto the international stage of intellectual proerty, it has attracted more and more industrial property from around the world."
“Copyright owners, in exercising their copyright, shall not violate the Constitution or laws or prejudice the public interests. The publication and dissemination of works shall be subject to the administration and supervision of the State according to law.”
A new Article 26 was added, which reads: “In case of pledge of copyright, the pledger and the pledgee shall register the pledge with the copyright administration under the State Council.”
The new Copyright Law includes six chapters and 61 articles. The six chapters are General Provisions; Copyright; Copyright Licensing and Assignment Contracts; Publication, Performance, Sound Recording, Video Recording and Broadcasting; Legal Liabilities and Enforcement Measures; and Supplementary Provisions.
The revised Copyright Law came into force on April 1, 2010. The previous Copyright Law was adopted in 1990 and came into force on June 1, 1991. Due to the rapid development of new technologies, especially digital technologies, the exploitation and use of databases, multimedia, network transmissions and the like, and China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), calls for revising the Copyright Law grew louder.
On October 27, 2001, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress promulgated the revised Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China for the first time. The revision of the Copyright Law expanded the protection for copyrights, strengthened the rights of copyright owners, and enhanced the protection and enforcement of these rights.
Stephen Yang is a partner at Peksung Intellectual Property Ltd. He can be contacted at: yyong@peksung.com
