"Our aim is to turn the China market into a market for the world, a market shared by all, and a market accessible to all. China will continue to make its foreign-related legal framework more open and transparent, strengthen intellectual property protection, better protect the lawful rights and interests of foreign investors and provide them with more high-quality services to further improve the business environment. China will create opportunities in opening up, tackle difficult problems through cooperation," said Chinese President Xi Jinping at the opening ceremony of the Third China International Import Expo on November 4. When asked about IP protection climate in China, many exhibitors have a common feeling, that is, foreign investors are more willing to come to invest here, thanks to the efforts China has made in IP protection.

    "According to the keynote speech delivered by Chinese President Xi, good progress has been registered in protecting IP rights and other opening up measures. China has spared no efforts in this regard, and achieved remarkable results in building a strict IP protection system, and that's what we have seen in this Expo," said Zhao Bin, Senior Vice President of Qualcomm Incorporated in an interview with China Intellectual Property News. He predicts that IP protection climate in China will become better and better.

    China has launched a series of measures to beef up IP protection since last Expo. In November 2019, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued an opinion on bolstering IP protection, putting forward some new targets, methods and measures to facilitate such work in the new era. Under the amended trademark law, effective on November 1, 2019, malicious trademark infringers have to pay a deeper price with the ceiling of punitive damages set at five times instead of the previous three. The same principle goes for patent cases. According to the new patent law (passed by the 22nd Session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) in October) Intentional patent infringement may invite one to five times of punitive damages with the monetary ceiling of statutory damages set at five million yuan.

    "I was so excited to learn that President Xi has stressed the importance of IP protection at the Expo for three consecutive years," said Tao Zhi, Vice-President of the Linde Group in Greater China. "As a foreign investor, I believe China will further translate IP protection into practice, and Linde Group in turn has more confidence than ever in bringing new technology to the Chinese market." Tao added.

    "President Xi emphasizes again how important it is to constantly beef up IP protection to better protect the lawful right of foreign investors, which give us more confidence in building our market in China. I hope China and foreign industry community can join hands and translate President Xi's requirement into action by strictly punishing infringement, simplifying right-safeguarding process and shortening examination period for trademark registration, thus create the first class innovation and business climate in China," said Dr. Andrzej Juchniewicz, Chief Representative of the Poland Investment and Trade Agency's Office in China, during his third attendance at the Expo.

    "As President Xi said, the Chinese market is a market for the world, a market shared by all, and a market accessible to all. We are going to seek good partners to commercialize our advanced technology in China, which can not only make Swiss tea capsules technology to take root in the Chinese market, but also let homemade tea product go to the world via new technology," said Ren Zhanbing, Executive Director of Shanghai Dream Treasure International Trading Company at the booth allocated for Swiss China Center (SCC).

    Source: CNIPA