According to the article published by the US Techcrunch website on April 11, with the original title of “The surprising rise of China as IP powerhouse”, China may not have became a global leader in the intellectual property protection and law enforcement, but is approaching the role rapidly.

With the recent doubts about the value of intellectual property rights in Western countries (especially the United States) and weakening in their protection and enforcement, China has steadily advanced its construction on the intellectual property system and protection of the properties of its own companies and citizens.

There are several surprising facts: 1) By 2015, Chinese companies and innovators have more than one million patent applications, accounting for more than one-third of the total number of patent applications worldwide and about twice of the US patent applicants.  2) In the same year, the number of civil intellectual property cases handled by Chinese courts has reached a surprising 109,386 cases, including more than 11,000 patent cases. By contrast, the total number of intellectual property-related litigation cases in the United States in the same year was about 14,500 cases. In other words, the total number of intellectual property litigation cases in the United States is only about 13% of China. 3) China is now increasingly being selected as a key place for patent litigation between non-Chinese companies. Why is that? The reason is very simple: litigants think they will be treated fairly.

We all understand that for a long time, in the Western impression, China is regarded as counterfeit country, the market has publicly sold pirated DVDs, counterfeit clothing, and technical infringements are blatant. But now the Silicon Valley and the new US government must not ignore China's change. Because the Chinese leadership and government organizations have worked together to push their intellectual property system into the 21st century.

In 2014, China began to establish specialized intellectual property courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. China's patent law has a history of only about 30 years, but last year China issued its fourth revision of the intellectual property law, the new law increases the amount of damages for intellectual property compensation by 5 times (up to 5 million China yuan), and expands several patents and Law enforcement clauses. Some commentators have pointed out that recently it is easier to protect the most cutting-edge softwares, business models and biotechnology inventions in China than in the United States The conclusion is that China is becoming a real intellectual property powerhouse.

Over the past few years, some of our colleagues have been in contact with intellectual property decision-makers and law enforcement officers, are deeply awared of their constant attentions on the intellectual property protection. The reason that China is changing so violently is of course related to the international pressure, but is mostly related to requirements of Chinese domestic companies. Given that China is determined to advance its intellectual property system and status, China is fully capable of surpassing the United States and the Europe to become the center of the global intellectual property rights over the next few decades.