World hails China for efforts on IPR protection

By Liu Lingling, People’s Daily

China was praised by the international community for continuous improvement of its intellectual property (IP) system at a special meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Coordination Committee held in Geneva, Switzerland on March 4 and 5.

The country’s achievements in the sector has resulted in constantly enhancing quality, efficiency and international influence of its IP protection, contributing Chinese wisdom to global IP governance.

Statistics indicated that by the end of 2019, the number of invention patent applications in China had ranked first in the world for nine consecutive years.

Meanwhile, the number of international patent applications filed by Chinese applicants under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) rose to the second in the world.

China became the first country in the world that has applied a total of over one million invention patents in a single year and the third country holding over one million valid patents, after the U.S. and Japan.

WIPO Director General Francis Gurry recently described China’s IP development as a remarkable journey and a remarkable story. He said China places IP at a strategic high level, pays attention to IP protection in all economic fields, and has made remarkable achievements in promoting the country’s R&D and innovation.

China has made impressive efforts and progress in IP protection, said Alexandre Ribet, French patent engineer and intellectual property consultant in Europe.

He explained that the measures China has introduced in recent years, such as promoting utility model patents with tax policy, are effective, and have set good examples for other countries.

China’s achievements in IP protection are obvious to all, said Awoumou, Chargé d’Affaires of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Cameroon to United Office, the World Trade Organization and other international organizations in Geneva.

Awoumou stressed that China’s efforts in the field should be acknowledged in a fair and objective way. The country has continually revised and improved relevant laws and regulations on IP protection and rolled out new policies to strengthen its capabilities in this respect, making rapid progress, he said.

In recent years, China has achieved a series of results in protecting the legitimate rights of foreign-funded enterprises, improving the quality and efficiency of intellectual property review as well as optimizing the punitive compensation system.

By strengthening the IP protection, the country has created a world-class business environment and is attracting more and more foreign enterprises.

China’s ease of doing business ranking climbed to 31st in 2019 and the country is among top 10 improvers for a second consecutive year, according to Doing Business 2020, an annual report published by the World Bank.

The measures taken by the Chinese government have protected and stimulated enterprises’ enthusiasm for innovation, which are helpful for both Chinese companies and foreign companies in China, said Hanaut Bresson, General Manager of European Financial Market Association in Paris.

Bresson pointed out that China has continued improving innovation capability and provided more incentives and stronger support for companies than other countries did, which has attracted many international innovative enterprises.

The inter-enterprise cooperation on innovation has facilitated cooperation among cities, and further promoted the global scientific development and innovative cooperation, Bresson added.

Jayanath Colombage, Additional Secretary to President for Foreign Relations of Sri Lanka noted that China has strengthened international cooperation on IP protection by the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative in recent years. He believes that the country will play a bigger part in global IP governance.