Protecting intellectual property rights and escorting innovation and development

Five outstanding representatives in the field of intellectual property talk about "reform and opening up and the development of intellectual property"
Protecting intellectual property rights and escorting innovation and development

On December 11th, the State Council Press Office held a press conference for Chinese and foreign journalists, and invited five outstanding representatives in the field of intellectual property, including Yin Xintian, former director of the Department of Law and Law of China National Intellectual Property Administration, Professor Wu Handong, former president of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Yang Wu, president of the All-China Patent Agents Association, Chen Yuanqing, director of intellectual property of Lenovo Group, and Hu Guohua, inventor of the first patent application in New China, to meet and exchange views with Chinese and foreign journalists around the theme of "Reform, Opening-up and Development of Intellectual Property". Combining their own work and experience, they showed the historic achievements of China’s intellectual property cause from different aspects.

China’s intellectual property cause has made remarkable achievements.

Yin Xintian said that China’s patent industry started in 1978, which coincided with China’s reform and opening-up. Over the past 40 years, with the deepening and development of China’s reform and opening up, China’s intellectual property cause has made remarkable achievements, which is also a part of China’s great achievements in reform and opening up.

Professor Wu Handong has been attached to intellectual property for almost 40 years. As early as 1980s, Professor Wu Handong and his colleagues compiled the first intellectual property textbook in China. In the past 20 years, Wu Handong has participated in intellectual property legislation, the formulation and demonstration of the national intellectual property strategy outline, etc., and has been praised by the media as "a witness and participant in the development of intellectual property in China".

Yang Wu is one of the earliest patent agents in China, who has been engaged in patent agency for more than 30 years. Yang Wu said that this year marks the 40th anniversary of reform and opening-up, which coincides with the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the National Patent Agents Association. The Association will also hold a symposium to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Association.

As one of the few enterprise intellectual property workers who have been engaged in intellectual property work in the same company and the same department for more than 17 years, Chen Yuanqing deeply feels that intellectual property is playing an increasingly important role in Lenovo’s international competition, and she hopes to leave her footprints on the intellectual property road in China.

In less than 20 years, China’s intellectual property industry has gone through the historical process of 200 years in western countries.

Hu Guohua brought not only the first invention patent certificate, but also two authorized patent certificates that he just got. Hu Guohua graduated from physics department of Fudan University in 1966 and worked in 207, Second Hospital of China Aerospace Science and Industry Group Co., Ltd. He has applied for more than 20 patents, and more than a dozen patents have been authorized.

Professor Wu Handong recalled that 40 years ago, ordinary people in China didn’t know what intellectual property was. I remember that in the 1990s, the legal dictionaries we came into contact with didn’t even have the term intellectual property. Today, we see that intellectual property has become a hot word in people’s lives and a key word in everyone’s work. Copyright awareness, brand concept and patent thinking, leading cadres, entrepreneurs and ordinary people are increasingly aware of and attach importance to intellectual property rights. Wu Handong quoted Dr. Bogsch, former Director-General of the World Intellectual Property Organization, as saying: "It took China less than 20 years to go through the historical process of western countries for 200 years, and this achievement has attracted worldwide attention."

Yang Wu said that our patent agents, as litigation agents, participated in patent litigation including administrative litigation and civil litigation, which also created a precedent in the world. These achievements are envied by many foreign colleagues, and I feel very proud.

One of the things that Chen Yuanqing experienced most in Lenovo was that in 2012, Lenovo took the lead in launching the world’s first notebook computer that can be turned 360 degrees, breaking the pattern that the traditional notebook computer can only be turned 180 degrees. As soon as the product was launched, it was seen that similar products were exhibited at the exhibition all over the world. So they carefully combed Lenovo’s accumulated patent assets and found that as early as 2005, when this product was only a laboratory concept product, Lenovo began to focus on the layout of related patents and found a series of patents to negotiate with competitors. The final result is that between 2012 and 2014, there was no product that can also be flipped 360 degrees on the market, which means that our protection of intellectual property rights helped Lenovo maintain its leading position in the world for two years. As we all know, Lenovo’s industry is developing very fast, and it is very rare to have a two-year lead.

The three amendments to the patent law have better integrated China’s patent system with international standards.

Yin Xintian still remembers the three revisions of China’s patent law. He said that the Patent Law passed in March, 1984 was the first patent law after the founding of New China, and it was a milestone in the cause of intellectual property in China. Since then, the patent law has been revised three times. The first time was in September, 1992, when the restriction of not granting patent rights to drugs, chemicals and food was lifted, which made China’s patent system better in line with international standards and greatly promoted the further development of China’s drugs, chemicals and food industries.

The second revision of the patent law was completed in 2000. At that time, there were still some areas in our relevant provisions on patents that did not conform to WTO rules. In order to join the WTO, the patent law was revised for the second time.

Yin Xintian believes that by the time the Patent Law was revised for the third time in 2008, it was completely to further improve China’s patent system according to its own needs.

Yin Xintian said that on December 5 this year, the the State Council executive meeting passed the draft of the fourth amendment to the Patent Law, which is going to be submitted to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) for deliberation. This is the latest change in the Patent Law.

Yin Xintian revealed that in this revised draft, several aspects are involved. The first is to significantly increase the amount of damages for patent infringement and the amount of administrative punishment for counterfeiting patents to increase the crackdown on infringement. The second is to stipulate the burden of proof for the accused infringer to cooperate with the provision of relevant information in the course of litigation. The third is to stipulate that network service providers should bear joint liability if they fail to stop the infringement in time. Fourthly, the inventor or designer should have the right to share the benefits arising from the service invention and creation made by the inventor or designer reasonably, in order to encourage the enthusiasm of invention and creation. (Reporter Jiang Jianke)