WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  IP/C/W/542 
22 October 2009 
 
 (09-5224) 
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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(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. 
 
1. Trademark and Anti-Unfair Competition 
 In December 2008, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce submitted the 
Anti-Unfair Competition Law (Revision)  to the State Council for inspection after extensive soliciting 
of the opinions from all walks of life, many r esearches and demonstrations as well as 11 revisions.  
 The Trademark Law (Revision)  (draft for examination) has been worked out and will be 
submitted to the Legal Affairs Office of the State Council after further study and examination on the 
basis of many researches, demonstrations and solicit ing of the opinions from relevant ministries and 
commissions, trademark agency organizations, expe rts and scholars, representatives of enterprises, 
relevant trademark authorities of China and the chambers of commerce, as well as associations.  
 
 On April 21, 2009, the Supreme People's Court released the Interpretations of the Supreme 
People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Applic ation of Law to the Trial of Cases of Civil 
Disputes over the Protection of Famous Trademarks .  
 2. Patent 
 On 27 December 2008, the 6th session of Standing Committee of the 11th National People's 
Congress of the People's Republic of  China discussed and passed the Resolution of the Standing 
Committee of the National People's Congress Concerni ng the Amendment of the Patent Law of the 
People's Republic of China , which came into effect on 1 October 2009.  
 
 On 27 February 2009, the State Intellectual Property Office submitted to the State Council for 
examination of the Revised Draft of the PRC Patent Law Implementing Rules  (draft for examination).  
Currently, the revised draft has been submitted to  the Executive Meeting of the State Council for 
review. IP/C/W/542 
Page 2  
 
  3. Customs Protection 
 On 31 January 2008, the General Administra tion of Customs issued the new version of 
Customs' Administrative Measures  on Enterprises Classification , which took into consideration 
enterprises' IPR violation records when impl ementing the classification administration.  
 
 In 2009, the new Implementing Measures on Customs Prot ection Regulations of Intellectual 
Property Rights was promulgated.  
 
4. Others 
 On 6 May 2009, the 62nd executive meeting of the State Council discussed and passed in 
principle the Payment Methods on the Broadcasting the Phonorecords in Radio Stations and 
Television Stations (Draft) , and later the draft was announced to be implemented by the State Council 
after further amendments according to the guidance of the executive meeting. 
  In February 2009, nine ministries and commissions including the State Intellectual Property 
Office, the Ministry of Commerce and others printed and issued the Notice of Intellectual Property 
Work on Enterprises Taking Part in Overseas Exhibitions . 
  On 30 March 2009, the Supreme People's Court released the Opinions on Several Issues 
Concerning the Implementation of the St ate's Intellectual Property Strategies ; and thus to work out 
the detailed plans and requirements for the work of the People's Court.   
 
 In 2009, based on the Administrative Measures on the Geographical Indications of 
Agricultural Products , the Ministry of Agriculture formulated 17 relevant and complementary 
departmental standards successively including the Quality Identification Standard of Geographical 
Indications Products of Agricultural Products , the On-Site Supervision Standard of Geographical 
Indications of Agricultural Products , the Administrative Measures on the Testing Institutions of 
Quality Identification Standard of Geographical I ndications Products of Agricultural Products , the 
Name Inspection Standard of Geographical I ndications Products of Agricultural Products  etc.  
 
(b) Enhanced IPR enforcement efforts th rough the application of more effective 
administrative sanctions as described in the Report.    
 
 From 2008 to 2009, while strengthening IPR law enforcement, China continued to carry out 
special campaigns with good results.  The Supreme People's Procuratorate promoted to establish the 
"Online Integration and Information Sharing" m echanism for IPR administrative enforcement and 
criminal justice to facilitate the timely referral of IPR criminal cases.  Focusing on the welcome of 
Beijing Olympic Games, the Ministry of Cultur e carried out the "Olympic Games Guarantee 
Campaign" in the culture market and severely cracked down on the operating activities of illegal 
audio and video products.  In April 2008, the Minist ry of Culture launched the 10th national audio and 
video market law enforcement campaign all over Ch ina, taking the "Protecting Intellectual Property 
Rights, Fighting Against Infringement and Piracy" as the theme.  According to the task deployment, local culture and administrative sectors continuously  launched the special campaigns concentrating on 
fighting against the illegal publications and piracy  and insisted on anti-piracy every day.  The 
National Copyright Administration continuously ca rried out the special campaigns concerning the 
utilization of copyrighted software in enterprises and the punishment for pre-installed illegal computer 
software, implemented the special campaigns figh ting against internet infringement and piracy 
activities and jointly engaged in the Olympic copyright protection work in the new media 
environment with the Ministry of Industry and In formation Technology and the State Administration 
of Radio Film and Television together.  The Ministry  of Public Security established and improved the 
coordination and supervision systems for key lega l cases, strengthened the investigation on the  IP/C/W/542 
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  criminal cases of infringement and piracy, sev erely attacked the original crime sources of 
infringement and piracy and enforced the supervis ion of printing and copy enterprises under the help 
of the press and publication and other sectors.  The Ministry of Public Security also actively advocated the international cooperation for law enforc ement and deployed the "Eagle Action" in line 
with the clues provided by United States Departme nt of Homeland Security.  The State Intellectual 
Property Office organized the intellectual property offices nationwide to carry out the "Thunderstorm 
Action" and "Sky Network Action" for the term of  one year to fight against intellectual property 
violations and patent fraud behaviors.  
5. Statistics of IPRs Enforcement 
• In 2008, public security authorities across the country uncovered 1,455 IPR-violating 
cases involving RMB1.65 billion Yuan and caught 2,642 suspects.  
 
• In 2008, procuratorial organs approved to arrest 2,107 persons in 1,210 IPR-violating 
cases and prosecuted 2,697 persons  in 1,432 IPR-violating cases. 
 
• In 2008, local courts across the country totally accepted and settled 24,406 and 23,518 
IPR civil cases of first instance respectively. 
 
• In 2008, local courts across the country settled 3,326 IPR-violating criminal cases. 
Verdicts on 5,388 persons resulted in legal effect and 5,386 persons were sentenced 
guilty.  
 
• In 2008, copyright administrative agencies at all levels and cultural sectors jointly 
inspected 782,670 commercial entities, shut down 36,601 entities due to illegal behavior, 
removed 694 underground dens, imposed 9, 032 administrative penalties, referred 238 
cases to judicial bodies and confiscated 45,648,426 pirated good s including 8,983,933 
volumes of books, 1,805,029 periodicals, 30, 536,277 discs of audi o and video products, 
1,111,311 discs of electronic publications, 1, 592,772 pieces of software and 1,619,104 
pieces of others, which involved the amount of RMB 14,188,386 Yuan. 
 
• In 2008, industry and commerce administrators  at all levels investigated and handled 
56,634 cases of trademark violations. 
 
• In 2008, IPR Bureaus across the country accepte d 1,092 patent disputes, investigated and 
handled 59 cases of imitated patent and 601 cases of counterfeited patent. 
 
• In 2008, nationwide culture administrative au thorities at all levels investigated and 
handled 11,665 cases of IPR infringement, susp ended the operation of 5,151 involved 
entities, revoked business licenses of 1,098 violat ors, referred 273 offenders to judicial 
bodies and confiscated 62,440,000 discs of  illegal audio and video products. 
 
• In 2008, the Customs intercepted 11,135 ba tches or over 600 million pieces of goods for 
import & export that were involved in IPR violation. 
 
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