law of the people's republic of china on the protection of intellectual property rights

law of the people's republic of china on the protection of intellectual property rights

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China is a country with a long history of civilization. The Chinese nation contains great creativity, and the splendid culture she created has had a far-reaching impact on the process of human civilization. For thousands of years, many outstanding scientists, inventors, writers and artists in China have made great contributions to the development of human civilization with their brilliant intellectual labor achievements.

With the development of human civilization and commodity economy, intellectual property protection system came into being, and it has increasingly become a powerful legal measure for countries to protect the rights and interests of owners of intellectual achievements, promote the development of science and technology and social economy, and conduct international competition. Due to various historical reasons, on the whole, the construction of intellectual property system in China started late. However, after the reform and opening up, in order to develop social productive forces faster, promote all-round social progress, adapt to the needs of the development of socialist market economy, and promote integration with the world economy, China has accelerated the pace of intellectual property protection system construction. In the short period of more than ten years from the end of 1970s to the present, China has done a lot of fruitful work, gone through the legislative process that some developed countries usually need decades or even hundreds of years to complete, established a relatively complete legal system for intellectual property protection, and made remarkable achievements in intellectual property legislation and law enforcement.

At present, the protection of intellectual property rights has become a common concern in international political, economic, scientific and cultural exchanges. International bilateral and multilateral negotiations on this issue, especially the conclusion of the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, have raised the standard of intellectual property protection worldwide to a new level.

Today, the international community attaches great importance to intellectual property protection. What is China's position on intellectual property protection? What is the current situation of intellectual property legislation and law enforcement in China? What measures has China taken to undertake its international obligations to protect intellectual property rights? It is necessary to make a basic introduction.

I. China's Basic Position and Attitude on Protecting Intellectual Property Rights

The Government of China believes that the intellectual property protection system is of great significance and role in promoting scientific and technological progress, cultural prosperity and economic development. It is not only an important system to ensure the normal operation of the socialist market economy, but also one of the basic environments and conditions for international scientific, technological, economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation. China regards the protection of intellectual property rights as an important part of reform, opening up and socialist legal system construction. Since the late 1970s, China has started to formulate relevant laws and regulations, and at the same time actively participated in the activities of relevant international organizations, strengthening exchanges and cooperation with other countries in the field of intellectual property rights. Therefore, the construction of intellectual property protection system in China has shown a high starting point facing the world and the international protection level at the initial stage. Driven by the reform and opening up, the speed of intellectual property legislation in China is unprecedented.

1980 On March 3rd, the government of China submitted its instrument of accession to the World Intellectual Property Organization. 1980 On June 3rd, China became a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization.

On August 23rd, the 24th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Fifth NPC passed the Trademark Law of People's Republic of China (PRC), which came into effect on March 23rd, 2003. This is an important symbol of China's systematic establishment of a modern intellectual property legal system.

1March, 984 12, the fourth meeting of the standing Committee of the 6th NPC passed the patent law of People's Republic of China (PRC), which came into effect on April 6th, 995.

The Government of China submitted the instrument of accession to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property to the World Intellectual Property Organization. 1985 March to 19 March, China became a member of the Paris convention.

1986 April 12, the fourth session of the Sixth National People's Congress adopted the General Principles of the Civil Law of People's Republic of China (PRC), which came into effect on 10/9871. On the whole, intellectual property rights were first defined in the basic civil law of China, and recognized as the civil rights of citizens and legal persons. The law also clarifies for the first time that citizens and legal persons enjoy copyright.

China government actively promotes the establishment of an international protection environment for integrated circuits. From 65438 to 0989, the World Intellectual Property Organization adopted the Treaty on Intellectual Property Protection of Integrated Circuits at the diplomatic conference held in Washington, USA, and China was one of the first signatories of the Treaty.

1On July 4th, 989, the government of China submitted the instrument of accession to the madrid agreement concerning the international registration of marks to the World Intellectual Property Organization. From 1989 10 10, China became a member of the Madrid Agreement.

1990 On September 7th, the 15th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Seventh NPC passed the Copyright Law of People's Republic of China (PRC), which came into effect on June 7th.

1992 On July 10 and July 30, China submitted the instruments of accession to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the universal copyright convention to the World Intellectual Property Organization and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization respectively. China joined the Berne Convention and universal copyright convention in 1992, 10, 15 and 10 respectively.

199365438+1On October 4th, the government of China submitted the instrument of accession to the Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms from Unauthorized Reproduction of Phonograms (hereinafter referred to as the Phonograms Convention) to the World Intellectual Property Organization. On April 30th, 1993, China became a member of the phonograms convention.

1On September 2, 993, the Third Session of the Standing Committee of the Eighth NPC passed the Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) on Anti-Unfair Competition, which came into effect on February 0, 2003.

1993 13 On September 5th, the government of China submitted the document of accession to the Patent Cooperation Treaty to the World Intellectual Property Organization. From 1 99465438+1October1China, it became a member of the Patent Cooperation Treaty, and the China Patent Office became an accepting bureau, an international search unit and an international preliminary examination unit of the Patent Cooperation Treaty.

The above historical facts are only a partial record of China's intellectual property legislation and its participation in the activities of relevant international organizations, which is enough to prove China's position and attitude of attaching great importance to intellectual property protection.

The basic framework of China's intellectual property legal system was mainly completed in 1980s. Great changes have taken place in international economic relations and environment since 1990s. 1990165438+10. In the multilateral trade negotiations of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Uruguay Round), the Draft Agreement on Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights was reached, which marked the formation of a new international standard for the protection of intellectual property rights. The Government of China actively participated in this negotiation process and made great efforts to facilitate the conclusion of this agreement. To meet the needs of opening wider to the outside world, China has actively fulfilled its international obligations to protect intellectual property rights, made efforts to bring the level of intellectual property protection closer to the new international standards, and adopted many major measures to further improve the level of intellectual property protection in China.

China's sincere stance of abiding by international conventions and bilateral agreements related to intellectual property protection and its ability to fully undertake international obligations have been widely praised and supported by international public opinion. Dr. arpad Bogsch, Director-General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), reviewed the 20-year history of cooperation between WIPO and China, and pointed out that "in the history of intellectual property, the speed at which China completed all this is unique.

China adheres to the legal principle of "there are laws to follow, laws to be observed, law enforcement to be strict, and violators to be prosecuted". In order to better implement this principle, while improving the legal system, strictly enforcing the law and resolutely cracking down on infringement, in view of the fact that China's intellectual property system has been established for a short time and citizens' intellectual property awareness is relatively weak, China has vigorously carried out legal publicity and education on intellectual property protection and accelerated the training of intellectual property professionals. In China, the promulgation of every intellectual property law has been widely publicized by radio stations, television stations, newspapers and other news media, and a large number of pamphlets and related video educational films have been published. At the same time, relevant government departments at all levels have rapidly popularized intellectual property legal knowledge among the general public by holding lectures and training courses on legal knowledge. For example, after the revision of China's patent law, millions of people across the country received training, and 600,000 people in Hunan Province alone received training. In China, the phenomenon of using legal weapons to solve intellectual property disputes has increased in recent years, which shows that the legal awareness of intellectual property rights in the whole society has increased and intellectual property knowledge has been popularized. In order to speed up the training of intellectual property talents, the China Municipal Government has also cooperated closely with relevant international organizations to organize relevant personnel to study abroad and participate in various training courses and seminars. More than 30 training courses and seminars have been held in cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization alone, with more than 3,000 trainees. At present, more than 70 colleges and universities in China have carried out teaching research on intellectual property rights. For example, 1986, China Renmin University set up an intellectual property teaching and research center to recruit non-law graduates to study for a second degree in intellectual property; On the basis of relevant teaching research, Peking University established the Intellectual Property Institute on 1993. China has gradually formed an education system to train professionals in the field of intellectual property, including second degree, master's degree and doctor's degree. Constantly send batches of intellectual property professionals to the society.

Second, China has a high-level legal system to protect intellectual property rights.

With the pace of reform and opening up, China has made great progress in intellectual property protection. According to the national conditions and international development trends, China has formulated and improved various laws and regulations on intellectual property rights, and formed the legal system of intellectual property protection in Socialism with Chinese characteristics. The scope and level of intellectual property protection in China are gradually in line with international practices, and a high level of legal protection has been implemented for intellectual property rights.

1983 The Trademark Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) and its implementing rules, which came into effect in March, fully comply with internationally accepted principles in trademark application, examination and registration. In order to meet the needs of reform and opening up and the development of economic situation, more effectively crack down on trademark counterfeiting, stop trademark infringement, and effectively protect the exclusive right to register trademarks, China revised the Trademark Law and its implementing rules in 1993, respectively, expanding the scope of trademark protection and adding provisions on the registration and management of service trademarks in addition to commodity trademarks. It is in line with the requirements of the Agreement on Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights reached by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to add correction procedures in the formal examination and establish a review opinion system in the substantive examination for the convenience of trademark registration applicants. The State Administration for Industry and Commerce has also promulgated a series of regulations, such as the Regulations on the Administration of Trademark Printing and the Measures for the Administration of the Filing of Trademark License Contracts. 1In February, 1993, the NPC Standing Committee made the Supplementary Provisions on Punishing the Crime of Counterfeiting Registered Trademarks, which further strengthened the punishment for the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks and trademark infringement. These laws, regulations and rules provide a guarantee for fully and effectively protecting the exclusive right to use registered trademarks at home and abroad.

1The Patent Law of People's Republic of China (PRC), which came into effect in April, 1985, and its implementing rules expanded the scope of intellectual property protection in China to the protection of invention-creation patents. In order to make the level of patent protection in China closer to international standards, the NPC Standing Committee passed the amendment of the Patent Law with 1992 on September 4th, which made important changes to the Patent Law. The newly revised Patent Law, proceeding from the need of opening wider to the outside world and benefiting the development of science, technology and economy, firstly expands the scope of patent protection and grants patents to inventions in all technical fields, regardless of products or methods, namely, medicines and chemical products, foods, beverages and condiments without exception; The second is to extend the protection period of invention patents from 15 years to 20 years, and the protection period of utility model patents and design patents from 5 years to 10 years; Third, patent protection has been further strengthened. In addition to extending the protection of patented methods to products directly obtained by patented methods, it is also clearly stipulated that the import of patented products must obtain the consent of the patentee, so as to protect the rights and interests of the patentee more fully; Fourthly, the conditions of compulsory patent licensing are redefined. This makes the protection of patent rights in China reach a new level. In this way, China's patent law is basically consistent with the Agreement on Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights reached by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

The Copyright Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) and its implementing regulations clearly protect the copyright of authors of literary, artistic and scientific works and their related rights and interests. According to this law, China not only protects written works, oral works, music, drama, folk art, dance works, fine arts and photography works, films, television and video works, engineering designs, product design drawings and their descriptions, maps, schematic diagrams and other graphic works, but also brings computer software into the scope of copyright protection. China is one of the few countries in the world that explicitly regards computer software as the object of copyright protection. The State Council has also promulgated the Regulations on the Protection of Computer Software, which provides specific implementation measures for the protection of computer software. As a supporting regulation of copyright law, it came into effect on June 199 1+00. 1On September 25th, 992, the State Council promulgated the Provisions on the Implementation of International Copyright Treaties, which made specific provisions on the protection of foreign copyright owners' rights under international treaties.

In addition, the People's Republic of China (PRC) Technology Contract Law formulated by the NPC Standing Committee, the People's Republic of China (PRC) Science and Technology Progress Law and a series of administrative regulations on intellectual property protection formulated by the State Council have further improved the legal system of intellectual property rights in China, and generally approached and coordinated the international protection level.

China has complete legal measures to protect intellectual property rights. China's intellectual property laws stipulate the legal liabilities for violating laws, including civil liabilities, administrative penalties and criminal liabilities.

China's patent law stipulates that the patentee or interested party may request the patent administrative organ to handle the patent infringement, or directly bring a lawsuit to the people's court. When dealing with it, the patent administration authorities have the right to order the infringer to stop the infringement and compensate for the losses. Those who pass off patented products or patented methods as patented products or patented methods shall be ordered by the patent administration authorities to stop passing off, make public corrections and impose a fine. If the circumstances of counterfeiting another person's patent are serious, the person directly responsible shall be investigated for criminal responsibility in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Criminal Law, that is, the person directly responsible may be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or a fine.

China's trademark laws and regulations stipulate that the administrative department for industry and commerce can take the initiative to check and deal with the infringement of trademark exclusive rights according to its functions and powers or the report of consumers; The infringed party may request the administrative department for industry and commerce at or above the county level where the infringer is located or where the infringement is committed, and the relevant administrative department for industry and commerce has the right to order the infringer to immediately stop the infringement and compensate the infringed party for its losses; If the infringement of the exclusive right to use a trademark does not constitute a crime, the administrative department for industry and commerce may impose a fine. If a party refuses to accept the administrative treatment of the administrative department for industry and commerce, he may bring a lawsuit to the people's court within the prescribed time limit, and the court will make a judgment. These provisions are convenient for the parties, and also ensure the consistency, fairness and seriousness of administrative law enforcement and judicial trial. Where the exclusive right to use a registered trademark is infringed, the infringed person may also directly bring a suit in a people's court. Anyone who counterfeits another person's registered trademark, which constitutes a crime, shall be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law, in addition to compensating the losses of the infringed person. According to the Supplementary Provisions on Punishing the Crime of Counterfeiting Registered Trademarks, if the amount of illegal gains from counterfeiting registered trademarks is relatively large or there are other serious circumstances, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and may also be fined or fined; If the amount of illegal income is huge, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years and shall also be fined. If an enterprise or institution commits the crime of counterfeiting a registered trademark, it shall be fined, and the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible personnel shall be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law. State functionaries who intentionally cover up the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks, or law enforcement officer bending the law, shall be investigated for dereliction of duty.

China's copyright law stipulates that a work is published without the permission of the copyright owner; Publishing a work created in cooperation with others as a work created by oneself without the permission of a co-author; Did not participate in the creation, in order to seek personal fame and fortune, signed on other people's works; Distorting or tampering with other people's works; Using his works in various ways without the permission of the copyright owner; Using other people's works without paying remuneration in accordance with the regulations; As well as live broadcast of performers' performances without their permission, they shall bear civil liabilities such as stopping the infringement, eliminating the influence, publicly apologizing and compensating for losses according to the circumstances. Plagiarism or plagiarism of other people's works; For the purpose of making profits without the permission of the copyright owner; Infringement acts such as copying and distributing audio and video products made by the producer without the permission of the producer shall bear civil liability according to the circumstances, and may be given administrative sanctions such as confiscation of illegal income and fines by the copyright administrative department. The parties may also bring a lawsuit directly to the people's court for acts of infringing copyright and copyright-related rights and interests. For illegal acts that seriously endanger social order and infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of copyright owners and other rights holders, if the circumstances are serious enough to constitute a crime, the criminal responsibility of the infringer may be investigated according to relevant laws.

With the implementation of intellectual property protection laws in China, intellectual property rights have been effectively protected in China, which has played a positive role in encouraging invention and fair competition. For example, the protection of the exclusive right to trademark registration has prompted the number of trademarks registered by Chinese and foreign manufacturers in China to increase rapidly. By the end of 1993, there were more than 4 10000 valid registered trademarks in China. Among them, there are more than 350,000 registered trademarks in China and nearly 60,000 registered trademarks from 67 countries and regions. Take the United States as an example Before 1979, there were only 122 registered trademarks in China, but only 1993 registered trademarks were 162 1 piece, an increase of more than 100 times. 1993, the number of trademark applications in China reached170,000, among which the number of new trademark registration applications exceeded130,000, ranking among the top in the world. Another example is China's patent law, which encourages domestic inventions and creations, but also encourages foreign patent applications. In April 1985, 1, 3,455 patent applications were accepted on the first day of implementation of the patent law. By the end of 1993, China Patent Office had accepted more than 360,000 patent applications. Among them, inventions, utility models and designs accounted for 27.5%, 62.8% and 9.7% respectively; Domestic applications accounted for 86.4%, and foreign applications accounted for 13.6%, respectively from 70 countries and regions. By the end of 1993, 75,000 patents/kloc-0 had been approved. Among them, there are more than 20,000 invention patents, more than 30,000 utility model patents/kloc-0 and more than 20,000 design patents.

Third, China has a complete law enforcement system to protect intellectual property rights.

China has not only formulated a set of intellectual property laws and regulations, but also enforced them seriously and fairly, and achieved remarkable results.

China's achievements in implementing intellectual property laws and regulations are first attributed to the fact that intellectual property laws provide complete judicial and administrative channels for intellectual property protection.

1. Judicial Approaches to Intellectual Property Protection in China

In China, any citizen, legal person and other organization who enjoys intellectual property rights can bring a lawsuit to the people's court in accordance with the law when their rights are infringed and enjoy effective judicial protection.

The people's courts exercise judicial power independently according to law, only obey the law, and are not interfered by any other administrative organ, social organization or individual.

Strict law enforcement is the core of judicial work. In conducting trials, the people's courts adhere to the principle of taking facts as the basis, taking the law as the criterion, handling cases in strict accordance with the substantive and procedural laws, implementing the systems of collegiate bench, recusal, public trial, final trial of second instance and trial supervision, accepting the supervision of people's congresses at all levels, people's procuratorates and the masses according to law, and ensuring the openness, fairness and seriousness of trial activities.

Establishing and perfecting the trial organization and trial system of intellectual property cases is an important guarantee for the people's courts to correctly hear intellectual property cases and effectively protect intellectual property rights according to law. In view of the characteristics of strong professionalism and high technology in handling intellectual property cases, some provinces and municipalities directly under the Central Government, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Fujian, Hainan and other higher people's courts have set up intellectual property courts since 1992, and the special economic zones and intermediate people's courts in Beijing and Shanghai have also set up intellectual property courts. Intermediate people's courts where people's governments of other provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government are located shall set up collegiate panels in relevant courts to hear intellectual property cases. This centralized way of hearing intellectual property cases is conducive to ensuring the unity of law enforcement, accumulating experience and improving the judicial level of intellectual property cases.

With the enforcement of intellectual property laws and the continuous strengthening of judicial protection in China, people's courts at all levels have accepted and concluded a large number of intellectual property civil disputes in a timely manner. According to statistics, from 1986 to the end of 1993, the national people's courts accepted 3505 cases of civil correction of intellectual property rights, including 1 168 cases of copyright; 1783 patent case; 554 cases of trademark rights. The people's courts have protected the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese and foreign intellectual property owners by trying intellectual property disputes. For example, the inventor of the invention patent of "drilling pressure drop piling method" v. Beijing Metro Foundation Engineering Company. The Beijing Higher People's Court held that the invention did not belong to the service invention stipulated in the Patent Law, and ruled that the invention patent right of "drilling and pressure drop piling method" belonged to the inventor. Another example is Hong Kong Thornton International Co., Ltd. v. Shenzhen Huada Electronics Co., Ltd. The Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court held that the trademark "SENDON" that the plaintiff applied for registration in Chinese mainland was protected by law; The defendant used the "SENDON" trademark on the same commodity without the permission of the trademark registrant, which constituted an infringement of the exclusive right to use a registered trademark. The defendant was sentenced to compensate the plaintiff 4683 14.4 yuan.

Intellectual property is an important civil right. For civil tort, the people's court can not only order the infringer to bear civil liabilities such as stopping the infringement, eliminating the influence, making an apology and compensating for the losses, but also impose necessary sanctions such as confiscation of illegal income, fines and detention on the perpetrator.

Those who seriously infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others and disrupt the economic order, which constitutes a crime, may also be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law. For intellectual property criminal cases prosecuted by procuratorial organs in accordance with the law, as long as there is sufficient evidence to prove that the defendant is counterfeiting another person's trademark or patent, and the circumstances are serious and constitute a crime, the people's court will punish it promptly and accurately in strict accordance with the law. According to statistics, from 1992 to 1993, the people's courts accepted 743 criminal cases of counterfeiting trademarks, concluded 73 1 case and sentenced 566 people to fixed-term imprisonment or criminal detention. The People's Court of Zhongshan City, Guangdong Province sentenced the defendants to fixed-term imprisonment 1 to 2.5 years respectively for five persons responsible for counterfeiting the trademark of American Mobil Oil Company, and fined them. This fully demonstrates the firm stance of China People's Court in punishing crimes and protecting intellectual property rights according to law.

According to the provisions of China's administrative procedure law, the people's courts have the responsibility to hear administrative lawsuits filed by citizens, legal persons and other organizations because they refuse to accept the decision of the intellectual property administrative organ to handle intellectual property disputes, and make a judgment to maintain, cancel or change the administrative decision according to law.

In handling foreign-related intellectual property disputes, the people's courts adhere to the principle of reciprocity between national treatment and legal application in accordance with the laws of China and the relevant international conventions that China has acceded to or concluded, thus providing a solid legal guarantee for promoting international economic, technological and cultural exchanges and cooperation. In the trademark infringement dispute case concluded by Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court, on the basis of finding out the facts of the defendant's infringement and confirming his tort liability, the two parties reached a mediation agreement through mediation, and the defendant immediately stopped the infringement, publicly apologized to the plaintiff and compensated him for the economic loss of 6,543,800 yuan. At the same time, the court also made a civil sanction decision on the defendant's illegal behavior. The case took only 10 days from acceptance to closure, which was well received by all parties in the United States. The United States Haofutun Company sent a banner to the court with the words "China's laws are fair and judges handle cases quickly".

In recent years, the people's courts have taken many effective measures to improve the judicial level and greatly improve the quality and efficiency of handling cases. In order to expand the influence of handling cases, the people's courts pay attention to selecting typical cases for publicity and reporting through the news media, which has achieved obvious social effects and safeguarded the dignity of the socialist legal system.

2. Administrative methods of intellectual property protection in China

China's intellectual property protection system, in addition to the judicial channels in line with international practice, starts from the actual national conditions of China, and China's patent law, trademark law, copyright law and other intellectual property laws all stipulate the administrative channels for intellectual property protection.

According to the provisions of the Patent Law, the relevant competent departments or local people's governments in the State Council may set up patent administrative organs. At present, there are more than 50 local patent administrations in China and more than 20 patent administrations in the State Council. According to the provisions of the Copyright Law, the National Copyright Administration and local copyright management institutions have been established. Trademark management shall be based on the principle of unified central registration and local hierarchical management. Trademark administrations have been set up at all levels from the central government to the provincial, municipal, prefectural and county levels, and there are also administrations for industry and commerce below the county level. There are more than 7,000 full-time trademark managers and 300,000 part-time employees.

According to the functions and powers stipulated by law, the intellectual property administrative organs in China maintain the legal order of intellectual property rights, encourage fair competition, mediate disputes, investigate and deal with intellectual property infringement cases, and safeguard the interests of the broad masses of the people and a good social and economic environment.

China's administrative enforcement of intellectual property rights has simple procedures, rapid filing, rapid investigation and high efficiency. This is extremely beneficial to the obligee. China patent administration authorities take patent infringement complaints seriously and deal with them in time according to law.

After the Copyright Law 199 1 came into effect in June, by the end of 1993, copyright administrative authorities all over the country had investigated and dealt with more than 50 cases of illegally copying audio-visual products and books, confiscated and destroyed infringing copies, and imposed administrative penalties on infringers. From 65438 to 0994, the China Municipal Government organized relevant departments to severely crack down on illegal copying in CD-ROM reproduction and book publishing. In April, Guangdong copyright, culture, radio, film and television, industry and commerce administration, public security and other departments jointly organized a large-scale raid on illegal CDs and other audio-visual products. Since then, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Hunan and other places have also taken similar inventory actions. These actions severely cracked down on the production and sale of pirated products. At the same time, the relevant departments of China government take measures to strengthen the management of the establishment of laser disc production and processing enterprises and supervise their production and processing activities according to law.

China Trademark Law has been implemented for more than 0/0 years, and the administrative department for industry and commerce has investigated and dealt with trademark infringement and counterfeiting cases/0/30,000 cases. Among them, there are a large number of major trademark infringement and counterfeiting cases, such as "Zhonghua" brand cigarettes, "Yongjiu", "Phoenix", "Flying Pigeon" brand bicycles, "Kweichow Moutai" wine and "Xinkaihe" ginseng, which effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of trademark registrants.

In accordance with the laws of China and the relevant international conventions that China has acceded to or concluded, the intellectual property administrative authorities in China adhere to the principle of national treatment and reciprocity in the application of laws and protect the intellectual property rights of foreigners according to law. For example, the patent administration authorities in Zhejiang Province fairly handled a patent infringement case filed by foreigners and ordered the manufacturer to stop the infringement and compensate the losses. The National Copyright Administration investigated and dealt with the case that more than a dozen arts and crafts factories in Fujian, Guangdong and other places copied toys from foreign companies, and an electronic industry company in Jiangsu copied and produced laser video discs. The administrative department for industry and commerce has investigated and dealt with more than 3,000 foreign trademark infringement cases such as TDK, Toshiba, Sony, IBM, 3M, ESSO, P & ampg, Head & Shoulders, Little Genius and Philips.

In the cases of foreign-related intellectual property infringement handled by China's intellectual property administrative organs, a large number of cases are investigated and dealt with on their own initiative. China Administration for Industry and Commerce shoulders the responsibility of maintaining economic order, and can take the initiative to inspect the market, effectively protecting the rights and interests of trademark registrants. For example, since 1988, administrative departments for industry and commerce at all levels in Guangdong Province have investigated and dealt with 30 1 infringement cases involving the United States. Among the 30 1 cases of trademark infringement, one third were complained by American parties, and most of them were discovered by the administrative department for industry and commerce during market inspection or reported by consumers. Intellectual property management authorities enforce the law impartially and resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of intellectual property owners, which has won favorable comments from many foreign-funded or Sino-foreign joint ventures. They presented the China Administration for Industry and Commerce with pennants and gold plaques embroidered with the words "honest administration, law enforcement like a mountain", "impartial law enforcement, strengthening the body and eliminating evil spirits", "impartial escort", "strict law enforcement and selflessness", and praised the case handlers for their "hard work, bold action" and "fast handling of cases".

Concluding remarks

China's reform and opening up is changing with each passing day. Now, looking at China from the field of intellectual property protection, some international people have commented that China has stepped into the ranks of the world's leading countries in the field of intellectual property. The backward history of intellectual property system construction in China has come to an end.

However, there are always some people in the world who turn a blind eye to the development and changes in China, ignore the basic facts, and comment on the current situation of intellectual property protection in China, saying that China has not established an "adequate and effective intellectual property system" and lacks the ability to undertake international obligations. There is no need to argue this argument. Facts are the best answer.

China is not satisfied with his achievements. As a developing country, China still has a lot of work to do to improve the intellectual property system. Because China has not established a modern intellectual property system for a long time, the awareness of intellectual property rights in the whole society is still relatively weak, and some regions and departments lack sufficient understanding of the importance of protecting intellectual property rights. Some serious infringements not only damage the legitimate rights and interests of the obligee, but also damage the dignity of the law. Therefore, while China is constantly improving its intellectual property legal system, the State Council has made the Decision on Further Strengthening Intellectual Property Protection. We can be sure that with the implementation of the important measures in the Decision, the protection of intellectual property rights in China will reach a new level.

China will continue to actively promote international cooperation in the field of intellectual property. In the process of establishing and perfecting the intellectual property system, China has been actively helped by the World Intellectual Property Organization and the international intellectual property community. China will, as always, actively participate in the activities of relevant international organizations and fulfill its obligations in various international treaties and agreements in the field of intellectual property. China is willing to continue to cooperate with other countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peace and the principles of equality and mutual benefit, and make joint efforts to improve and develop the international intellectual property system and make positive contributions.