According to the Key Points of Work on Combating Intellectual Property Infringement and the Manufacture and Sales of Counterfeit and Shoddy Commodities Nationwide for 2012 (hereinafter referred to as the Key Points), China is going to exert gigantic efforts in protecting intellectual property rights, particularly in cracking down upon patent violations regarding collective and repeated infringement, as well as patent piracy and fraud.

The Key Points require relevant authorities to conduct rectifying campaigns on infringements and counterfeits, reinforce criminal and judicial enforcement, establish permanent protection mechanisms, build infrastructures and enhance law disseminations to ensure the effectiveness of the efforts.

The Key Points in particular recommend special rectifying campaigns on patent protection in such fields as livelihood, major projects and foreign affair, as well as in producing and circulating process. The enforcement in prominent exhibitions needs to be highlighted with carefully arranging investigations before and during the exhibitions. IP inspection in special markets should also be duly strengthened.

The Key Points also focus on the protection on trademarks, copyrights, online trading, rights in import and export procedures and geographical indications. In addition, China will also attach great importance to trade secret theft by improper means including stealing, luring and coercing, which will be severely combated in line with laws. Moreover, intellectual property rights on layout designs of integrated circuits and the Olympic logos will be duly preserved.

With concerted efforts, China has made breakthrough progress in intellectual property protection, which is reflected in below statistics: in 2011, authorities dispatched enforcement officials for 175,000 person-times, investigated 2.51 million items of commodities, handled 3,017 patent cases, up 65.5%, dealt with 1,110 patent complaints during exhibitions, conducted cross-departmental coordination for 623 times and carried on trans-regional enforcement for 875 times, effectively deterring and curbing potential patent violations.

(Source: IPR in China)