Fight against infringement and counterfeiting
Improve the quality, efficiency and level of administrative protection of intellectual property rights
Core reading:
In 2021, the State Intellectual Property Office will address the key areas and areas where the public has a strong response to the public, public opinion, and infringement and counterfeiting are frequent. It will attack, rectify, and deter in place, and further improve the quality, efficiency and level of administrative protection of intellectual property rights, and continue Create a good innovation environment and business environment to provide a strong guarantee for implementing new development concepts, building a new development pattern, and promoting high-quality development.
□ Our reporter Zhang Wei
In the first year of the "14th Five-Year Plan", the administrative protection of intellectual property rights has been intensively exerted in just over two months.
Just at the beginning of March, there were a number of new intellectual property policies related to this.
On March 2, the State Intellectual Property Office publicly solicited opinions from the public on the “Administrative Adjudication Measures for Major Patent Infringement Disputes (Draft for Comment)” (hereinafter referred to as the “Measures”) drafted by it; on March 3, the “National Intellectual Property The Notice of the Office of the Bureau and the General Office of the Ministry of Justice on Promoting the National Experiences and Practices in the Construction of Administrative Adjudications on Patent Infringement Disputes (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice") was published.
Recently, the State Intellectual Property Office has issued the "2021 National Intellectual Property Administrative Protection Work Plan" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), which clarifies the key areas and regions that have strong reactions to the masses, public opinion, and frequent infringements and counterfeiting. , Remediation to the end, deterrence in place, further improve the quality, efficiency and level of intellectual property administrative protection, continue to create a good innovation environment and business environment, and provide a strong guarantee for implementing new development concepts, building a new development pattern, and promoting high-quality development.
Administrative protection has natural advantages
On March 2, the World Intellectual Property Organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, released its latest report.
The report stated that despite the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the number of PCT international patent applications filed through the World Intellectual Property Organization in 2020 will continue to increase.
After China became the largest source country for PCT international patent applications filed through WIPO in 2019, China will continue to lead the world in the number of PCT international patent applications in 2020.
According to the report, the number of global PCT international patent applications in 2020 will increase by 4%, and the number of applications will reach 275,900, the highest number ever.
China's PCT international patent applications increased by 16.1% year-on-year, ranking first in the world with 68,720.
Statistics from the State Intellectual Property Office show that in 2020, the number of invention patents per 10,000 people in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) will reach 15.8, and the number of valid trademark registrations will reach 30.173 million, which is more than four times that of 2012.
Core patents, well-known trademarks, premium copyrights, high-quality geographical indication products, etc. continue to increase.
Shen Changyu, director of the State Intellectual Property Office, pointed out that the rapid rise in the overall strength of intellectual property rights has benefited from the continuous strengthening of my country's intellectual property protection, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, my country has protected intellectual property rights with unprecedented intensity.
The survey results show that my country has achieved remarkable results in building a large-scale protection work pattern. The social satisfaction of intellectual property protection has increased from 63.69 points in 2012 to 80.05 points in 2020.
"In the protection pattern of'strict protection, large protection, quick protection, same protection, strong protection', the intellectual property administrative protection system is the key. After all, the protection of public administrative power has natural advantages compared with the protection of judicial power and the protection of social forces. -Initiative, efficiency, flexibility, foresight, integrity and professionalism." said Qi Jiangang, a professor at the Intellectual Property Research Center of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law.
Strengthen administrative rulings to protect patents
The "Plan" issued by the State Intellectual Property Office recently clarified five major tasks.
The first is to strengthen administrative adjudication and strictly protect patents.
The "Plan" requires that in strict accordance with the revised Patent Law and related laws and regulations, implement the State Intellectual Property Office's system for handling patent infringement disputes that have a significant national impact, and carry out early resolution of administrative adjudications for drug patent disputes.
Improve the mechanism for collecting and arranging the source of patent disputes and the mechanism for investigating infringement risks, strengthen source governance, and prevent and resolve infringement risks in a timely manner.
Vigorously promote the construction of demonstration administrative adjudication of patent infringement disputes.
Unblock the acceptance channels, broaden the sources of clues, and carry out high-quality and efficient administrative rulings on patent infringement disputes and other patent dispute cases.
Intensify efforts to combat repeated infringements, group infringements, and malicious infringements, intensify the handling of patent infringement disputes involving foreign and private enterprises, give full play to the advantages of administrative protection, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of rights holders in accordance with the law.
This is exactly the same as the previous "Notice" and the "Measures" that are seeking comments. This year, the country's determination to strengthen administrative adjudication in the field of patents can be seen.
In fact, the deployment of related work has already begun.
In December 2018, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Improving the Administrative Adjudication System and Strengthening Administrative Adjudication Work", which stated that "focus on natural resource ownership disputes, intellectual property infringement disputes and compensation disputes, and government procurement activities. Administrative adjudication on disputes and other aspects will better serve economic and social development."
In November 2019, the State Intellectual Property Office issued the "Notice on Carrying out the Demonstration Construction of Administrative Adjudication of Patent Infringement Disputes" to organize various localities to carry out demonstration construction of administrative adjudication of patent infringement disputes and strengthen the administrative adjudication of patent infringement disputes.
In March 2020, 8 regions, including Beijing, Hebei, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hubei, Guangdong, and Shenzhen, will be designated as the first batch of pilot projects to carry out demonstration construction of administrative adjudication of patent infringement disputes.
In addition, the State Intellectual Property Office has also issued normative documents such as "Guidelines for Administrative Adjudication of Patent Infringement Disputes" and "Guidelines for Administrative Mediation of Patent Disputes" to further improve the administrative adjudication procedures and substantive standards for patent infringement disputes.
The reporter learned from the State Intellectual Property Office that the system will handle 42,000 administrative rulings on patent infringement disputes in 2020, a year-on-year increase of 9.9%.
All regions have also explored good experiences and practices in administrative adjudication of patent infringement disputes.
For example, Beijing has formed a “joint oral review” mechanism for patent infringement and right confirmation to improve the efficiency of administrative adjudication and case handling; it is the first to explore the establishment of a technical investigator system to accurately ascertain technical facts.
Shanghai has established a judicial confirmation system for administrative mediation of patent infringement to extend the depth of administrative protection of intellectual property rights.
Jiangsu Province has formulated and promulgated procedures for administrative enforcement of laws and regulations to refine the rules of patent administrative adjudication procedures.
Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province has established a joint case handling mechanism with the comprehensive law enforcement team to strengthen case investigation and evidence collection.
Strengthen online infringement and counterfeiting control
In addition to strengthening administrative adjudication, the "Plan" also requires comprehensive policies to strengthen trademark protection management; strict supervision, strengthening the protection of geographical indications, Olympic signs, official signs, and special signs; focusing on key areas, key links and important periods, and strengthening the entire chain Protection; improve the work system and service network, and strengthen the guidance on overseas intellectual property disputes.
In terms of trademark protection, it is required to strengthen the guidance for handling serious infringements involving a wide area, a long duration, a high amount of money involved, and a bad influence.
Increase the rectification of malicious trademark registration applications, the use of trademarks in violation of prohibitive regulations, and counterfeiting of registered trademarks.
Study and formulate general trademark violation judgment standards, and standardize the order of trademark use management.
In terms of the protection of geographical indications and Olympic signs, official signs, and special signs, it is required to improve the protection system of geographical indications, strengthen the supervision of geographical indication protection, highlight characteristic quality standards, implement list-based supervision of key geographical indications, and increase the rectification of illegal and illegal use of geographical indications. The strength of the logo behavior.
In terms of the protection of the entire chain in key areas, key links and important periods, it is required to increase the protection of key areas such as food, medicine and public health that are related to public interests and the vital interests of the people, especially anti-epidemic protection products, civilian biological resources, rural food, Products that affect the vision of young people and children are protected by products.
Strengthen governance in key areas such as trading markets, wholesale markets, and farmer's markets where infringement and counterfeiting are frequent, and key periods such as the Spring Festival, May Day, Mid-Autumn Festival, and National Day.
Strengthen the governance of online infringement and counterfeiting, and strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in exhibitions.
In strengthening the guidance on overseas intellectual property dispute response, it is proposed to further improve and expand the overseas intellectual property dispute response guidance service network, and give full play to the role of the national overseas intellectual property dispute response guidance center and local sub-centers.
Shen Changyu revealed that this year will set up another 10 or so overseas intellectual property dispute response guidance centers and local sub-centers, continue to strengthen the construction of overseas intellectual property information service platforms, and provide high-level guidance and guidance for "going out" enterprises to effectively deal with overseas intellectual property disputes. service.