China IPR SME Helpdesk Newsletter

On December 26, 2020, the National People’s Congress passed the Amendment to the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China. The amended Criminal Law, which will enter into force on 1 March 2021, is expected to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, as it also reinforces provisions involving criminal acts of intellectual property infringement. As a notable change, the amendment adds commercial espionage as a type of criminal acts that infringe on trade secrets, strengthening the protection of trade secrets.

The Supreme People’s Court and the CNIPA have established an online mediation co-ordination mechanism which allows the IP owners to resolve IP-related disputes online, offering another streamlined avenue for IP enforcement. Disputing parties can submit a mediation application to the People’s Court, which appoints mediators, and the following mediation process will take place via an online mediation platform. Furthermore, disputing parties can also directly submit a mediation application to their favored appropriate mediation organization via the mediation platform.

The China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) recently emphasised its commitment to improving intellectual property rights protection throughout the China’s 14th Five-Year Plan period. To this end, the SPP plans to establish a special organ, which will guide IPR-related procuratorial work. The organ is expected to integrate criminal, civil and administrative procuratorial functions, guiding and improving IP enforcement procedures.

China recently adopted the Regulations on the Administration of Enterprise Name Registration which will enter into force on 1 March 2021. The new regulations will further simplify the registration process of business names in China as well as establish an enterprise name dispute resolution mechanism, which can be used when an enterprise believes that other enterprise names infringe on the legitimate rights of that enterprise. The regulations, thus, improve the protection of enterprise names in China which are not used as trade marks.