After years of half-hearted efforts, it appears changes to the trademark, copyright and patent laws may be the first co-ordinated steps towards stopping IP infringers, writes Colin Galloway
When former premier Wen Jiabao announced in the wake of China’s 2010-11 “Special IPR Enforcement Campaign” that China’s intellectual property legislation would be boosted to strengthen deterrence against counterfeiters, many commentators dismissed the pledge as window dressing aimed at placating foreign governments and rights holders.
Today, however, China is in the throes of revising several major IP laws, including amendments to its flagship trademark, copyright and patent laws. Although many of the mooted updates are evolutionary and likely to have been implemented anyway, others are more fundamental. With various overarching themes, they represent a co-ordinated attempt by China’s various IP authorities to improve rights holders remedies across the board.
Perhaps the most important of the upcoming changes involves the Trademark Law, the most recent draft of which was published for public comment by the National People’s Congress in January this year. The final law is expected to be promulgated as early as the middle of this year.
You must be a
subscribersubscribersubscribersubscriber
to read this content, please
subscribesubscribesubscribesubscribe
today.
For group subscribers, please click here to access.
Interested in group subscription? Please contact us.