China steps up efforts in copyright protection

China has stepped up efforts to strengthen intellectual property protection through quicker channels to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of innovators are strongly and widely supported and protected, a spokeswoman of the country's top IP regulator said on Tuesday.

Guo Wen, the head of the China National Intellectual Property Administration's IP protection division, told a news conference that a total of 71 national-level IP protection centers have been set up nationwide, with the establishment of 41 stations to help innovators quickly solve IP disputes.

Such IP protection centers have been basically covered in the country's major and developed cities, while the stations have been expanded in clusters where small commodities or fast-moving consumer goods are frequently seen, according to her.

She cited data, noting that the centers and stations accepted 35,000 cases from January to April and that the average processing time was around two weeks. "In this way, IP rights owners can be protected in a timely and convenient manner," she said.

In the first four months, the institutes also received 85,000 patent per-review requests, and the authorization period for invention patents approved through this per-examination was kept within three months, she said.

In addition, more than 150,000 government agencies and enterprises have been registered at the institutes in order to obtain quicker and more optimized IP services. She added.

These institutes have played a bigger role in serving innovators by issuing 833 patent analysis reports and offering 2,142 times as much free IP training in 2023, she said.

While the IP services are being facilitated, China's judicial protection of IP rights has also been enhanced.

By the end of last year, 25 high people's courts, 242 intermediate courts, and 287 grassroots-level courts had been able to consolidate IP civil, administrative and criminal cases into a single adjudication tribunal for tackling, said Ding Guangyu, an official from the Supreme People's Court.

"Thanks to the 'three-in-one' platform, the quality and efficiency of IP case handling have been constantly improved," said the deputy chief judge of the SPC's No. 3 Civil Adjudication Tribunal.

To punish harshly those who seriously infringe upon others' IP rights, punitive damages will be applied in 319 IP cases in 2023, an increase of 117 percent compared with 2022, he added.