At a press conference sponsored by the State Council Information
Office on Wednesday Zhang Qin, deputy commissioner of the State
Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), discussed the introduction of
China's intellectual property protection in 2005.
According to Zhang, 2005 saw a sharp increase in patent
applications and approvals. Patent applications continued to rise
rapidly with the average annual growth rate being 20 percent over
the past five years and representing an increase of 34.6 percent
over 2004. The growth rate of applications for 'invention' patents
from China was also much higher than those being received in other
countries. Enterprises have been identified the main drivers behind
the increase in patent applications.
In 2005 Chinese authorities investigated and completed 49,412
trademark cases, including 6,770 involving foreign companies -- 23
percent more that the number in 2004, Zhang said.
The growth rate of the molecular design register applications
was also 9.8 percent higher than last year, he
added.??
Zhang also explained that trademark applications continued to
grow rapidly in China totaling 838,000 cases -- a 10 percent jump
on last year. China’s cumulative applications for trademark
registration had now reached 4.22 million.
The State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) had
strengthened administrative law enforcement and investigated a
large number of major trademark cases which had the potential to
seriously harm people’s health and safety. This was also against
the national interests and social and economic order. Statistics
show that in 2005, SAIC investigated 49,412 trademark cases,
destroyed more than 7,346.75 tons of illegal products and 342
million yuan was paid in fines.?Around 235 cases involving 215
suspects were transferred to judicature departments for further
investigation.
In 2005 the National Copyright Administration developed a series
of initiatives to stem the flood of pirated music, audio-visual
material and the protection of internet copyright. Meanwhile
administrative departments at various levels continue to strengthen
day-to-day market supervision.
Last year copyright management departments accepted and heard
9644 cases in total. Of these 9380 were concluded. In excess of 107
million pieces of pirated goods were confiscated. In addition the
state council's IPR and Sino-US trade working groups, the National
Copyright Administration and Ministry of Information Industry have
constituted measures to protect internet copyright.
Last year Customs scored a number of major successes as China
further enhanced IPR protection. To the end of 2005 there were 6307
successes recorded by Customs. So far this year 1610 articles
applied to be IPR registered and of these 1469 were approved.
(China.org.cn April 19, 2006)