Key breakthroughs in China's intellectual property judicial protection over the last year

An open day of Supreme People's Court (SPC) IP court show how a case is decided in Beijing, China, April 23, 2019. /Chinacourt.org

Editor's note: Wu Peicheng is a PhD candidate in law at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and UNSW, Sydney. He used to intern in the IP tribunal of the Supreme People's Court of the PRC. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

April 26 is World Intellectual Property Day. For quite a long time, Western countries have accused China of insufficient intellectual property (IP) protection.

IP protection was an important issue discussed by the parties during the China-U.S. trade conflict, and relevant provisions related to increasing IP protection standards in China were included in the phase one economic and trade deal between China and the United States.

China has made great efforts in protecting IP for both foreign and domestic parties in the past few years. It is an excellent time to review the breakthroughs in China's IP judicial protection in 2019 as the world celebrates Intellectual Property Day.

As claimed in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), IP rights, including patents, trademarks, copyright, trade secrets and so on, are civil rights. Therefore, judicial protection is the predominant approach to protect IP in China as in most jurisdictions around the world.