China IP SME Helpdesk Newsletter

The Supreme People’s Procuratorate announced that it will increase “efforts to protect commercial secrets in key technology fields and combat infringements that involve advanced and core technologies or threaten enterprises' survival and development”. This is a welcomed step as trade secret protection has always been rather complicated in China, with low numbers of successful court cases.

In 2020, the Chinese Customs detained over 56 million goods suspected of IP infringement. While the customs is carrying out routine inspections of goods, in 2020, there were several special enforcement actions such as Longteng Action and Blue Net Action aimed at combating IP infringements including in the field of cross-border e-commerce. It should be noted that in China the customs have the authority to detain imports and exports of goods suspected of IP infringement. It is a good enforcement tool that EU SMEs can benefit from when they record their IP free of charge with the China Customs.

Recently, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) announced that all subsidies for patent applications will be cancelled by the end of June 2021. Furthermore, financial aid provided by local governments for patent licensing should be phased out before 2025. This action aims to improve the quality of China’s patents. It is also good news for the EU SMEs as it reduces the amount of low-quality patents and potentially reduces the backlog of patent applications.