WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
IP/C/W/564 
20 October 2011  
 
(11-5210) 
Council for Trade-Related Aspects of 
Intellectual Property Rights Original:   English 
 
 
 
TRANSITIONAL REVIEW MECHANISM OF CHINA 
 
Communication from China 
   The following communication, dated 21 Oc tober 2009, from the delegation of China, 
providing information specified in Annex 1A of its Protocol of Accession, is being circulated in the 
context of the transitional review mech anism under Section 18 of that Protocol. 
 
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VI. TRADE-RELATED INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY REGIME 
(a) Amendments to Copyright Law, Trademark Law and Patent Law, as well as relevant 
implementing rules covering different areas of the TRIPS Agreement bringing all such 
measures into full compliance with and full application of the TRIPS Agreement and 
the protection of undisclosed information.  
Copyright 
The 13th Session of the 11th Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China 
adopted the Decision on Amending the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China on 26 February 2010, and the revised Copyright Law came  into effect on 1 April 2010.  The revised law 
adds the pledge registration system of Copy rights.  Based on this, the National Copyright 
Administration of China (NCAC) promulgated Measures on the Pledge Registration of Copyrights (NCAC Decree No.8) on 25 November 2010, and th e rule came in force on 1 January 2011.  
 
The State Council promulgated th e Interim Measures for the Paym ent of Remuneration for Audio 
Products Played by Radio and TV Stations (Sta te Council Decree No. 566) on 10 November 2009. 
The regulation came into force on 1 January 2010. 
 
Trademark  
 Revision of the Trademark Law is still underway  and has not yet completed.  A draft of the 
revised Trademark Law was published at the website of the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council ( http://www.chinalaw.gov.cn ) in September 2011 for public comments. 
 
Patent 
 
 To implement the new Patent Law revised in 2008, the State Council issued the Decision on 
Amending the Implementing Regulations of the Pa tent Law of the People's Republic of China 
(State Council Decree No. 569) on 9 January 2010, a nd the revised Implementing Regulations of the 
Patent Law took effect on 1 February 2010.  IP/C/W/564 
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   On 21 January 2010, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO)  issued the revised 
Guidelines for Patent Examination (SIPO Decree No. 55), which went into effect on 1 February 2010. 
On 26 August 2010, SIPO issued the revised Measu res on the Pledge Registration of Patent Rights 
(SIPO Decree No. 56) and the Provisions on Electr onic Patent Application (SIPO Decree No. 57), 
which were brought into effect on 1 October 2010.  On 29 December 2010, SIPO issued the revised 
Measures on Patent Administrative Enforcement (SIPO Decree No. 60), which took effect on 
1 February 2011.  On 27 June  2011, SIPO issued the revised Measures on Archival Filing of 
Licencing Contract for Patent Implementation (SIP O Decree No. 62), which came into force on 
1 August 2011.   Customs Protection  
 The State Council promulgated the Decisi on on Amending the Regulations on Customs 
Protection of Intellectual Property Rights (State  Council Decree No. 572) on 24 March 2010, and the 
revised regulation came into force on 1April 2010.  
 
(b) Enhanced IPR enforcement efforts throug h the application of more effective 
administrative sanctions as described in the Report.   
Changes to the structure of IPR administration and enforcement 
 
 The Supreme People's Court on 22 June 2009 issued the Provisions on the Division of Work in the Trial of Administrative Cases Involving the Authorization and Determ ination of Intellectual 
Property Rights Such as Patents and Trademarks, wh ich became effective on 1 July 2009.  The 
Provisions submits first instance, second instance an d retrial cases involving the authorization and 
determination of intellectual propert y rights over patents, trademarks, the layout design of integrated 
circuits, new plant varieties, etc. to designated intermediate people's courts in Beijing, the High 
People's Court in Beijing and the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People's Court for trial, bring to an end the situation where such cases, starting from 2002, were separately accepted by IPRs 
courts and administrative courts.   
 
 In 2009, the Supreme People's Court conducte d studies on the pilot programmes launched in 
local people's courts in which IPRs courts accept a ll IPRs cases including civil cases, administrative 
cases and criminal cases.  By the end of December 2010, five high courts, 49 intermediate courts and 
42 grass-roots courts in the country have carried out such pilot programmes.   
 
 In January 2011, the Supreme People's Court,  the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the 
Ministry of Public Security join tly issued the Opinions on Certai n Issues Concerning the Application 
of Law in the Trial of Criminal Cases Involving IPRs Infringement, which provided further clarifications on such issues as jurisdiction a nd identification of nature of IPRs cases.  
 
Information on measures taken to improve enforcement of intellectual property rights 
protection  1. Carrying out special operations nationwide  to combat infringement of intellectual 
property rights and production and sa le of fake and inferior products 
 
To intensify the protection on intellectual pr operty rights and safeguard fair and orderly 
market environment, from October 2010 to June 2011, the Chinese government carried out special 
operations throughout the country to fight agains t infringements of intellectual property rights and 
production and sale of fake and infe rior products.  A special leading group of the operations headed 
by a Vice Premier and consisting of 26 ministries and agencies was established.  IP/C/W/564 
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  In the special operations, by the end of June  2011, the General Administration of Press and 
Publication had settled 63 major cases, of which 19 were adjudged, 11 were given administrative 
penalty and 30 were under judicial process.  The National Copyright Administration, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry  of Public Security jointly carried out "Jian 
Wang Action" designed to combat network in fringement and piracy, clamping down online 
infringement and piracy on texts, music, videos, games, cartoons and software.  By the end of 
March 2011, 1,148 copyright infringement cases had been  filed for investigation, of which 466 were 
given administrative penalty and 36 suspected of criminal offences were transferred to judicial 
authorities. 
 
 The industry and commerce administrations inv estigate trademark infringements.  In 2010, 
2,391 cases involving counterfeit of specific names,  packing and decoration of well-known brands 
and 888 cases of fraudulent use of names of other ente rprises were settled, with the total value of 
RMB 35.16 million and RMB 237.81 million respectively.  
 The protection on intellectual property rights in import and export is also further intensified, 
with the inspection rate increased for goods export ed to Europe, America, Africa, Japan and other 
regions.   Police departments focus their efforts on combating production and sale of fake agricultural means of production, quack medicine and adultera ted wine and counterfeits  of domestic and overseas 
well-known brands.  By the end of April 2011, police departments had tracked down more than 
10,000 IPR infringement cases and arrested over 16,000 crimes, with a total value of nearly 9 billion 
involved.  The Procuratorates at all levels had ap proved arrest in more than 2,600 criminal cases 
involving infringements and counterfeits and initia ted prosecution on over 3,800 persons.  The 
judicial authorities had accepted 730 new IPR infri ngement cases and adjudged more than 800 cases. 
 
2. Promoting the use of genuine software  
 
 By May 2011, 135 ministries and agencies at the central level had completed checking and rectification of copyrighted software.  Lo cal government agencies in Beijing and Shanghai 
Municipalities, in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region,  as well as in cities including Qingdao, Jinan, 
Chengdu, Suzhou, Huainan and etc.  had taken the lead in fulfilli ng checking and rectification of 
copyrighted software.  By the end of October 2010,  18,282 enterprises had al so been added as targets 
for use of copyrighted software, and 12,262 of th em had completed the job and passed inspection. 
 
3. Enhancing the judicial transparency of intellectual property rights and exploring the 
long-term mechanism to improve intellectual property rights protection 
 
 The Supreme People's Court launched the website ( http://ipr.chinacourt.org ) which is linked 
to its official website.  By the end of 2010, 41, 696 effective IPR judgments and decisions had been 
published through the website. In 2010, the Suprem e People's Court released its Annual Report on 
Intellectual Property Rights Cases (2009), summarizing 44 typical issues concerning application of 
law which had been stipulated in the judgments  and rulings in 37 typical cases.  Since 2009, the 
Supreme People's Court has also released a seri es of judicial interpretations, including the 
Interpretation on Certain Issues Concerning the App lication of Law in the Trial of Cases of Civil 
Disputes Involving Well-Known Trademark Protecti on and the Interpretation on Certain Issues 
Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of  Dispute Cases Involving Infringement on the Patent 
Rights. 
 IP/C/W/564 
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   For more information including statistics in respect of IPR protection, Members are welcome 
to consult annual publication of China's Intellect ual Property Protection issued by SIPO, annual 
publication of Intellectual Property Protection by  Chinese Courts issued by the Supreme People's 
Court, and also the official website on IPR protection ( http://www.ipr.gov.cn ). 
 
 
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