WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  IP/C/W/505 
18 October 2007 
 
 (07-4477) 
Council for Trade-Related Aspects 
of Intellectual Property Rights Original:   English 
 
 
 
TRANSITIONAL REVIEW MECHANISM OF CHINA 
 
Communication from China  
 
 
 The following communication, dated 15 Oct ober 2007, from the Delegation of the People's 
Republic of China, providing information specified  in Annex 1A to its Protocol on Accession, is 
being circulated in the context of the transitional review mechanism under Section 18 of that Protocol. 
 
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(a) Modifications to the  Copyright Law, Trademark Law and Patent Law, relevant 
implementing rules that cover all areas included in the TRIPS Agreement and bring 
these measures into full conformity with the TRIPS Agreement, as well as protections to 
undisclosed information. 
 
1. Copyright 
 On 26 March  2006, Ministry of Public Security and National Copyright Administration of 
China jointly issued the Provisional Rules on Promoting the Joint and Cooperation in Combating the 
Infringement of the Exclusive Rights to Use Copyright . 
  Decision (No.2) on Amending the Supreme People's Court's Interpretation on Certain Issues 
Concerning Application of Laws in Dealing W ith Cases Concerning Computer Network Copyright 
Disputes  issued by the Supreme People's Court on 22 November 2006, further clarified the 
jurisdiction with regard to network copyright prot ection, the decision of the copyright owner after 
network communication and the legal liability of in ternet service provider, came into effect on 
8 December 2006. 
  The Standing Committee of the 10
th National People's Congress approved on 
29 December 2006 the proposal of the State Council on China's accession into the WIPO Copyright 
Treaty  and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty , which came into effect on 9 June 2007. 
 
 On 5 April 2007, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) and the Supreme People's Procuratorate 
(SPP) issued Judicial Interpretation of the SPC on Issu es Concerning Application of Law in Dealing 
with Criminal IPR Cases (No.2) , which further lowered the quantity threshold for infringement of 
Copyright and strengthened the crack-down on IPR infringement. 
 
2. Trademark 
 In April 2006, SAIC made the draft of Trademark Law public to solicit opinions and 
comments from domestic and foreign bodies and entities.  By the end of 2006, 48 mails and 
1,012 pieces of opinions from 47 orga nizations including USPTO, JPO, INTA have been received.  At IP/C/W/505 
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 present, a new round of opinion solicitation on th e draft of Trademark Law (August of 2007 Edition) 
is under way.  
 In November 2006, SPC issued Notice on Recording and Filing System for Judicial 
Certification on Establishm ent of Famous Trademark , with a view to enhanc ing the supervision and 
guidance on judicial certification on famous trademark. 
 
 Measures for the Administration of Speci al Signs of Geographical Indication Products  was 
issued by SAIC in January 2007, and came into effect on 30 January 2007. 
 
3. Patent 
 On 24 May 2006, the State Intellectual Property Office issued the Guide on Patent 
Re-examination , which came into effect on 1 July 2006. 
 
 On 12 October 2006, the State Intellectual Property Office issued Measures for the Reduction 
or Postponement of the Payment of Patent Fees , which came into effect on 13 November 2006. 
 
 On 27 August 2007, the State Intellectual Property Office issued Relevant Rules Concerning 
Regulating Patent Application,  which came into effect on 1 October 2007. 
 4. New Plant Varieties 
 On 12 January 2007, SPC issued the Provision on Application of Law in Dealing with Right 
Disputes over New Plant Varieties , which came into effect on 1 February 2007. 
 
5. Anti unfair competition 
 Interpretation of the SPC on Issues Concerning Application of Law in Dealing with Civil 
Cases of Unfair Competition  was issued on 12 January 2007 by SPC, which came into effect on 
12 January 2007, provided legal basis for dealing with civil cases of unfair competition, protecting 
legitimate rights and interests of business opera tors and safeguarding market competition order. 
 
6. Customs Protection 
 The Provisional Regulation on Bett er Coordination in IPR Law Enforcement was jointly 
promulgated by the Ministry of Public Secur ity and the General Administration of Customs on 
24 March 2006. 
 
(b) As stated in the report, China is strengthening law enforcement in respect of IPR by 
way of more effective administrative penalties. 
  From August 2004 to the end of 2005, the State Council of China conducted a nationwide 
special campaign on IPR protection mainly targ eted on 15 provinces and cities including Beijing, 
Shanghai, etc. and focusing on the protection of  trademark, copyright and patent under the 
circumstances of import and export of commodities, various exhibitions and commodity fairs, OEM, 
and printing and reproduction.  With the support fro m the governments at all levels and various law 
enforcement and judiciary departments, campaign re sulted in the investigation and punishment of a 
number of large and major cases. 
  IP/C/W/505 
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  From 2006 and 2007, the State Office of Inte llectual Property Protection continued to carry 
out or initiated the following special actions and campaigns:  
 1. the Ministry of Public Security carried  out "Mountain Eagle" action consecutively for 
two years; 
 
 2. the State Office of Intellectual Property Protection of China and the State Copyright 
Office took special actions jointly with a view to cracking down on copyright 
infringement through network; 
  3. eight departments including the National Office on the Elimination of Pornography 
and Illegal Publications and the General Administration of Press and Publication 
initiated the nationwide "100 Day Anti-Piracy Action"; 
 
 4. the National Copyright Administration of China carried out special campaign to 
crackdown on the illegal preloading of software into computers; 
 
 5. Industry and Commerce Authorities ca rried out special actions on protecting 
exclusive rights on registered trademark; 
 
 6. the Ministry of Culture initiated the "Sunshine" campaign to crack-down upon piracy 
in the audiovisual products market; 
  7. Chinese customs offices actively took special actions towards import and export 
infringement activities in specific areas and particular channels; 
  8. the General Administration of Customs launched two campaigns, namely "the special 
campaign of concentrated striking on the IP infringement activities through the mail 
delivery channel of express luggage" and "the special IP enforcement campaign by 
the customs within the Yangtze Delta area", in  August and in September respectively; 
  9. AQSIQ enhanced the IPR protection in the areas of food, agricultural material and 
architectural material; 
  10. Patent Authorities initiated special act ion on combating counte rfeit patent, imitated 
patent and patent infringement; 
  11. SPC has established supervision system on large and major IPRs criminal cases and 
SPP carried out supervision activity comba ting manufacturing and sales of counterfeit 
products and IPRs infringement. 
 7. Statistics of IPRs Enforcement 
 In 2006, 1,910 cases of IP infringement were cl osed and 2,344 suspects were apprehended by 
the public security authorities across China w ith a total value concerned amounted to 
RMB 1.06 billion. 
  In 2006, 678 IPR criminal cases and 1,224 persons  were authorized by procuratorial organs 
upon application for arrest on a nationwide basi s, 752 cases and 1,370 persons were prosecuted. 
  In 2006, 2,277 criminal cases involving IP infringement, production of counterfeit and 
inferior goods and illegal business ope ration were closed by the courts across the nation with 3,507 
criminals. IP/C/W/505 
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 In 2006, a total of 2,475 batches of involving import and export IPR infringement goods with a total value concerned up to RMB 200 million were investigated and dealt with by the customs 
offices across China.  
 In 2006, 33,900 of trademark counterfeit cases were investigated and dealt with by industry 
and commerce administrative authorities at all levels.   AQSIQ deal and investigated 15,000 cases of  forging and counterfeiting the factory names 
and address of others, 1,000 cases of producing an d printing counterfeit labels and packages. 
  The culture authority investigated and dea lt with some 37,962 cases, seized and destroyed 
112,280,000 illegal audio and video products. 
  During the special action, press and publication authorities investigated and dealt with 12,142 
cases of copyright infringement and outlawed 18,140 illegal business operators. 
 
 The patent authority investigated and dealt with 33 cases of patent counterfeiting, 933 cases 
involved counterfeiting the patent of another pe rson and 1,227 cases involved patent infringement. 
 
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