“Harshly combat illegal criminal offences including infringement on intellectual property right, trade secrets, right to new plant species, preemptive registration of trademarks and exploiting famous trademarks, and online right infringement and piracy; focus on the investigation of a series of right infringement and counterfeiting criminal cases with terrible actions and impacts; protect the interests of the right owners effectively.” Recently, twelve departments, including the National Head Office of Crackdown on IPR Infringements and the Production and Sale of Counterfeit and Shoddy Commodities, the State Intellectual Property Office, the Ministry of Public Security, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the Press and Publication Administration of Radio, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, jointly issued the Action Plan for IPR Protection of Foreign Investment Enterprises (hereinafter refer to Action Plan), and decided to conduct a concentrated crackdown on the illegal criminal offences of infringement on intellectual property rights of foreign investment enterprises. 

“This is the first time, in recent years, for Chinese government to conduct a program that focuses on IPR protection issue for foreign investment enterprises. It not only demonstrates Chinese government’s determination to protect the lawful IPR of foreign and domestic right owners without bias, but also indicates the consistence efforts of our country to dedicatedly construct a welcoming environment for commercial activities and to stay open”, said Li Shunde, a researcher at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Law Institute, during an interview with China Intellectual Property News. 

The Action Plan dictates that the relevant administrative executive and criminal judiciary apartments should cooperate smoothly and closely, improve collaboration mechanisms, increase investigation efficiency, and attend to relevant cases in time and resolve them quickly. “Following these principals, continue to solidify the current strengths, work together to strengthen IPR protection, and further create a market environment of fair competition and healthy investment environment”, said Li Shun De. 

According to summary statistics, in the first half of this year, the total number of patent administrative cases reached 15,411 nationwide, which was a 23.4% increase. In the first 7 months of this year, there were 17703 foreign investment enterprises newly founded nationwide, which was a 12% increase. Undoubtedly, China’s efforts of strengthening IPR protection by increase the level of seriousness, inclusiveness, speed and simultaneity, of protect the lawful rights of domestic and foreign right owners without bias, and of created welcoming environment for commercial activities, have become an important guarantee of China’s economic development, as well as the key indicator for the worldwide positive attitude towards Chinese economy.