Guozhi Fa Bao Zi [2024] No. 12
To all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, and the Intellectual Property Office and the Department of Justice (Bureau) of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps:
The following Opinions are hereby put forward so as to thoroughly implement the Party Central Committee's and State Council's decisions and deployments on comprehensively strengthening efforts on the protection of intellectual property rights, to strengthen legal safeguards for intellectual property rights, to optimize mechanisms for coordination and cooperation, to strengthen the force of coordinated protection, to deepen cooperation between intellectual property management departments and judicial-administrative organs in efforts on the protection of intellectual property rights, and to jointly promote the establishment of a work pattern of "strict protection, extensive protection, rapid protection, and simultaneous protection" of intellectual property rights.
1. General requirements
Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly study and implement Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, earnestly implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's series of important instructions on strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights, fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, promote the implementation of the Outline for the Construction of an Intellectual Property Power (2021-2035), the Plan for the Construction of a Rule of Law in China (2020-2025), and the 14th Five-Year Plan for the Protection and Use of Intellectual Property Rights, and earnestly implement the Opinions on Strengthening the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights The "Opinions on Improving the Administrative Adjudication System and Strengthening Administrative Adjudication Work" requires that the advantages of intellectual property management departments and judicial-administrative organs be brought into full play, and a joint work force should be formed to promote the protection of the whole chain of intellectual property rights, and efforts should be made to build an intellectual property system oriented to socialist modernization, strengthen the legal protection of intellectual property rights, create a good business environment and innovation environment, and provide strong support for the construction of a modern socialist country.
Second, the content of the work
(1) Strengthen the construction of the legal system for intellectual property rights. Coordinate and promote legislative work in the fields of trademarks and patents, and actively promote the process of revising the Trademark Law and its implementing regulations. Strengthen legislation in areas such as geographical indications, and improve a unified geographical indication protection system that coordinates specialized protection and trademark protection. Strengthen research and demonstration on the revision of regulations on layout design of integrated circuits. Promote research and construction of rules for the protection of intellectual property rights in data. In the field of intellectual property law enforcement, we will fully implement the newly revised Administrative Punishment Law, improve the benchmark system for administrative discretion, and thoroughly implement new provisions such as confiscation of illegal gains, non-punishment for minor circumstances, non-punishment for the first offense, non-punishment for no subjective fault, and two-way transfer of judicial and administrative rights, so as to jointly promote the enforcement of trademarks and patents, which not only strictly protects intellectual property rights, but also ensures both public interest and incentives for innovation.
(2) Promote administrative adjudication of intellectual property infringement disputes. Jointly issue and implement policy documents related to strengthening the administrative adjudication of patent infringement disputes in the new era. Research and promote the construction of a legal system for administrative adjudication of patent infringement disputes, further improve the administrative adjudication system, and highlight the advantages of the administrative adjudication system. Implement a system for informing you of administrative adjudication rights, and optimize the process of administrative adjudication procedures. Improve the evaluation mechanism for administrative adjudication, include administrative adjudication of patent infringement disputes in the relevant evaluations and overall deployments of local rule of law governments, and strengthen policy guidance and operational guidance for administrative adjudication work. Promote intellectual property management departments to earnestly perform their administrative adjudication duties. Jointly explore and advance the pilot reform of administrative adjudication of infringement disputes in the field of intellectual property rights, promote the standardization of administrative adjudication, increase the enforcement of administrative adjudication, promote the establishment of adjudication mechanisms with a sound system, smooth channels, fairness and convenience, and linkage between adjudication and litigation, and promote the implementation of adjudication and litigation convergence work.
(3) Promote the resolution of intellectual property disputes and social co-governance. Give full play to the advantages of the system of administrative reconsideration that is fair and efficient, and convenient for the people, improve the quality and efficiency of the handling of administrative reconsideration cases in the field of intellectual property, properly resolve intellectual property disputes, and earnestly safeguard social fairness and justice and the legitimate rights and interests of intellectual property rights holders. Actively promote the establishment of people's mediation organizations for intellectual property disputes. Jointly issue and implement policy documents on strengthening intellectual property arbitration. Encourage and support arbitration institutions to carry out intellectual property business, and promote the construction of intellectual property arbitration expert databases. Promote the connection between mediation of intellectual property disputes and reconsideration, litigation, arbitration, and other work. Strengthen the sharing of information on untrustworthy entities with serious violations in the field of intellectual property rights. Promote the sharing and organic connection of legal services and rights protection assistance in the field of intellectual property. Standardize the identification of inventions and creations and (major) technological innovations, and earnestly implement the provisions of the Prison Law and related judicial interpretations on commutation and parole, "meritorious service" and "major meritorious service".
(4) Give play to the supporting role of appraisal and notary institutions. The intellectual property management department implements the "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Appraisal of Intellectual Property Rights", strengthens the cultivation of intellectual property appraisal institutions, and improves the system of intellectual property appraisal standards. Judicial-administrative organs are to strengthen the professionalization and standardization of appraisal bodies related to intellectual property appraisals within the scope of registration management. Research and standardize the work of intellectual property appraisal access, supervision and management. Establish a feedback mechanism for the practice of intellectual property appraisal institutions. Strengthen the establishment of a creditworthiness system for the intellectual property appraisal industry, carry out quality evaluations of intellectual property appraisal projects and case files, standardize professional ethics, and strictly punish the industry. Support and guide notary institutions to provide notarization services for enterprises, scientific research institutes, invention and creation rights holders for technological research and development, technological transformation and other activities, and handle the notarization of evidence preservation evidence for goods that infringe on patent rights and exclusive rights to use trademarks in markets, e-commerce, and exhibitions. Strengthen notarization services for rights holders to use and inherit intellectual property rights by means of agreements, wills, gifts, etc. Explore the notarization of the handling of mediation agreements for intellectual property disputes with payment content, and the notarization of the enforceable effect of creditor's rights documents.
(5) Deepen lawyers' work on intellectual property legal services. Strengthen the construction of a team of professional intellectual property lawyers, guide more lawyers, especially outstanding young lawyers, to engage in intellectual property business, support the development of professional law firms in the field of intellectual property, and research and carry out the evaluation of professional titles of intellectual property lawyers. Lawyers engaged in intellectual property business are encouraged to obtain patent agent qualification certificates, and cultivate more interdisciplinary talents with interdisciplinary backgrounds such as law and science and engineering. Study the effective connection between intellectual property professional degree education and legal professional qualifications. Strengthen the establishment of intellectual property professional committees of lawyers associations at all levels, actively carry out intellectual property business training and exchange and discussion activities, and establish a mechanism for the selection and release of typical legal service cases in the field of intellectual property. Strengthen the construction of the team of public lawyers in the field of intellectual property, and raise the level of administration in accordance with law. Build a lawyer legal service system that is compatible with the modern industrial system, promote the deep integration of intellectual property legal services and advanced manufacturing, and promote the improvement of the safety and stability of the industrial chain and supply chain. Support domestic law firms to set up overseas branches, strengthen the training of foreign-related patent lawyers, actively participate in overseas early warning of intellectual property rights and assistance in foreign-related intellectual property rights protection, and escort mainland enterprises to "go global".
(6) Strengthen the concept of intellectual property culture. All levels of intellectual property management departments and judicial-administrative organs should increase the extent of publicity on the protection of intellectual property rights, vigorously increase the enthusiasm of the people to participate, promote, and supervise the establishment of the rule of law on intellectual property rights, and create a positive social atmosphere that respects innovation and protects intellectual property rights. Carry out theoretical and academic research on the construction of intellectual property culture, jointly carry out activities to benefit the people with intellectual property culture that is close to the times, close to the people and close to life, and enhance the awareness of the whole society to respect and protect intellectual property rights. All localities are encouraged to carry out training activities for intellectual property experts and scholars to enter institutions and campuses. Include the development of intellectual property theme publicity activities as an important part of the inspection and acceptance of popular legal education, and make it an important indicator for selecting and commending advanced legal popularization. Identify the highlights of publicity, expand publicity channels, innovate publicity methods, make full use of important opportunities such as World Intellectual Property Day and National Intellectual Property Publicity Week, and actively publicize the effectiveness of intellectual property protection by holding press conferences, publishing white papers and typical cases, and holding public lectures on intellectual property rights, so as to fully demonstrate the determination and effectiveness of the mainland's protection of intellectual property rights.
(7) Deepen international exchanges and cooperation on intellectual property rights. Cooperate closely to track and study international trends and issues in the field of intellectual property protection, and promote the improvement of the formulation of international rules and standards related to intellectual property protection. Strengthen communication in international negotiations related to the protection of intellectual property rights, and earnestly safeguard the interests of the mainland. In the legal review of the signing, ratification or accession of international treaties, strengthen communication and promote relevant domestic approval procedures. In-depth research on important international treaties in the field of intellectual property rights, comparative research with domestic systems, feasibility analysis and demonstration of accession, promote the negotiation and signing of international legal instruments on genetic resources and related traditional knowledge, and contribute China's wisdom to the formation of international protection rules as soon as possible. Actively share China's excellent experience and cases in intellectual property protection, tell the story of China's intellectual property rights, and show the image of a civilized and responsible major country. We will work together to strengthen cooperation on the protection of foreign-related intellectual property rights, create a world-class business environment, and help mainland enterprises "go global".
3. Organizational safeguards
(8) Establish a consultation mechanism. The State Intellectual Property Office and the Ministry of Justice shall establish a coordination and consultation mechanism for the protection of intellectual property rights, organize and convene meetings in a timely manner, invite relevant departments of the judiciary and administration of intellectual property rights to participate according to the needs of the work, inform each other of the work on the protection of intellectual property rights, and strengthen research on outstanding problems or common and trending problems existing in the protection of intellectual property rights, and propose countermeasures through consultations, and clarify the matters and opinions reached on in the form of meeting minutes, countersigned documents, and joint issuance of guiding opinions, and the responsible party shall be responsible for their implementation. Intellectual property management departments and judicial-administrative organs at the provincial level or below should actively broaden the channels and methods of communication in their daily work, gradually establish normalized and diversified mechanisms for consultation and communication, and jointly study and implement relevant work.
(9) Strengthen information sharing. Intellectual property management departments and judicial-administrative organs at all levels should promote information communication and sharing in trademarks, patents, geographical indications, collective circuit layout design, administrative law enforcement, mediation, and other links. Accelerate the construction of a national information platform for the protection of intellectual property rights, improve the level of online management of intellectual property administrative reconsideration work, and promptly submit information on intellectual property administrative reconsideration cases. Establish mechanisms for the regular exchange of information, strengthen the evaluation and monitoring of the effectiveness of protection efforts, and promptly summarize and promote typical experiences and practices. Strengthen the protection of intellectual property public services, and further improve the efficiency of intellectual property public services.
(10) Strengthen exchanges and training. Further improve the talent exchange mechanism, and the intellectual property management departments and judicial-administrative organs at all levels may send cadres with high comprehensive quality and strong professional ability to exchange and study with each other according to the needs of their work, so as to promote in-depth business cooperation between the two sides. The State Intellectual Property Office and the Ministry of Justice regularly commend and encourage collectives and individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the protection of intellectual property rights in intellectual property management departments and judicial administrative organs. The Ministry of Justice has increased the extent of commendations for intellectual property people's mediation committees and intellectual property people's mediators.
State Intellectual Property Office
Judicial Department
April 25, 2024
Source: State Intellectual Property Office
Review: Huang Zhijun
Editor: Wu Yuting
![Vigilance against intellectual property risks, SHEIN and Zhongce help cross-border merchants accelerate their security and run safely[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)