China IP SME Helpdesk Newsletter

In April, the All China Patent Attorney Association (ACPAA) published high-level targets that the organisation aims to achieve by 2025. Amongst the targets are a 12% increase in practicing patent attorneys as well as increasing China’s litigation talent.China IP SME Helpdesk external expert Toby Mak shares with us his thoughts on the ACPAA’s targets.

On 05 May, the Marrakech Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled will come to force in China. The Marrakech Treaty will facilitate access to copyrighted reading materials, including foreign reading materials to visually impared people in China. This is a welcomed step by the visually impared community.

In the beginning of April, Beijing published its new set of Intellectual Property Rights Protection Regulations. “According to the regulations, city authorities will support the intellectual property (IP) rights protection of strategic emerging industries, such as new materials, new energy, and aerospace”. What is interesting to IP owners, is that these industries will be subject accelerated review of their IP.

The National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC) issued 2021 copyright statistics. According to the statistics a total of of 6,264,378 copyright registrations were made in China in 2021, up by 24.3% from 2020. Amongst those, almost half (2,280,063) were software registrations. Read the article to learn more.