CNIPA issued a policy interpretation of the “Opinions on Strengthening Collaboration on Intellectual Property Protection” in China
On May 20, the China Intellectual Property Office and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the “Opinions on Strengthening Collaboration on Intellectual Property Protection.”
Introduction background
On November 30, 2020, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that when presiding over the 25th collective study of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee: “We must promote the unification of intellectual property administrative law enforcement standards and judicial adjudication standards, and improve the administrative law enforcement and judicial cohesion mechanisms. If needed for the integration, we could use legal, administrative, economic, technological, social governance, and other methods to improve the protection system from review authorization, administrative law enforcement, judicial protection, arbitration and mediation, industry self-discipline, citizen integrity, etc., to strengthen coordination and build a large-scale protection work pattern.”
In November 2019, 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 Strengthening the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights” (Zhongbanfa [2019] No. 56), requiring “smooth administrative law enforcement and criminal justice connection.” The linking mechanism between rights, notarization, arbitration, mediation, administrative law enforcement, and judicial protection strengthens information communication and sharing, and forms an operating mechanism that integrates various channels and complements each other’s advantages, and effectively improves the efficiency of rights protection.
In 2018, the party and state institutions were reformed and the State Intellectual Property Office was reorganized to manage patents, trademarks, geographical indications of origin, and integrated circuit layout designs which were responsible for the business guidance of trademark and patent enforcement. To thoroughly implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech and earnestly implement the decision and deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on comprehensively strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights, the State Intellectual Property Office and the Ministry of Public Security are based on the post-organizational responsibilities and requirements and based on fully absorbing the opinions of relevant departments.
The “Opinions on Strengthening Collaboration on Intellectual Property Protection”
On July 7, 2021, the CNIPA issued a policy interpretation of the “Opinions on Strengthening Collaboration on Intellectual Property Protection” (the “Opinions”).
According to the Opinions, the CNIPA will provide support to public security organs in terms of trademarks, patents, geographical indication information, and legal status. This means that if the public security organ requires verification of the trademark registration certificate and priority certificate, trademark change, transfer, renewal certificate, and other certification documents in the process of handling IP matters, it can do so through the CNIPA trademark registration certificate publicity system.
In the circumstance that there are drawbacks in the publicity system, the public security organ might demand the Trademark Office of the CNIPA via a letter to verify the information which couldn’t be checked from the publicity system or in the case that the information is contradicted.
If the public security organ needs to verify the legal status of the patent involved in the process of dealing with IP matters, it may report to the CNIPA. In the process of dealing with IP matters, if the public security organ needs to confirm such information as geographical indications, special geographical indications (official marks), and market entities that have approved the use of special geographical indications, it may send a letter to the CNIPA for clarification.
Furthermore, if needed, the CNIPA will also give out aid to public security agencies in terms of specific enforcement standards. Regarding the identification of the use of trademarks, the same trademark, the same kind of goods, and counterfeit patents involved in criminal cases, the public security organs can immediately recognize the issues based on related judicial interpretations and trademark and patent infringement judgment standards authorized by the CNIPA.
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– You could see How To Register Trademark in China here.
– You could visit here to see Procedure of Trademark in China.
– You could visit here to check Required documents of filing trademark in China.
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