China's State Council published the Outline of the National Intellectual Property Strategy in early June, taking on one of the country's major bugbears. The plan aims to improve the use of intellectual property rights (IPR) by 2020 and consists of a preface, guiding principles and strategic goals, strategic focuses, specific tasks and strategic measures.

Tian Lipu, Commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office, said that the fundamental goal of implementing the strategy is to push for the effective use of IPR. That is, to improve the application of rights in the market, promote ownership, commercialization and industrialization of privately owned, or proprietary, IPR and enhance the value given to intellectual property.

"The outline will ensure the realization of China's important IPR goals, encourage enterprises to own proprietary IPR, and reduce IPR disputes with other countries," said Zhang Qin, Deputy Commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office.

Over the past decade, China has made significant progress in IPR protection, although it has been less remarkable than the speed of China's social and economic development. For instance, currently, there is little privately owned IPR in China. Disputes over IPR occur frequently and counterfeits and piracy remain salient problems.

IPR strategy has become central in many countries in their fight to remain competitive. Right now, China does not have strong capacity in innovation, nor does it own many core technologies or famous brands. The IPR system has not played a fundamental role in spurring technology and cultural innovation, promoting knowledge dissemination and standardizing market competition. These call for an IPR strategy in China.

In early 2005, a leading work group was set up under the State Council to formulate a national IPR strategy. A total of 33 organizations directly under the Central Government participated in formulating the outline, including the State Intellectual Property Office, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the National Copyright Administration and the Ministry of Science and Technology. On April 9, the outline was deliberated on and approved in principle at a meeting of the State Council Standing Committee. After further revision, it was officially published in early June.

It spelled out the general goal of China's IPR strategy, and specified seven special tasks and nine strategic focuses. According to the outline, the strategy will not only focus on improving the intellectual property regime, promoting the creation and utilization of intellectual property, and fostering an IPR culture, but will also strengthen judicial punishments for IPR infringements, increasing the cost of infringements and preventing IPR abuses by formulating relevant laws and regulations.

Zhang believes the launch of a national IPR strategy is a milestone in the development of intellectual property in China.

At a press meeting on March 13, Zhang stated that the outline put forth an IPR early-warning and emergency-response system. Under the system, China will publish a progress report on key sectors, and work out contingency plans for disputes, conflicts or emergency situations on intellectual property that have a wide-ranging and significant impact, so that they can be dealt with in a proper way and any potential damage can be controlled or reduced.

In addition, China will further strengthen IPR law-making, and make timely amendments to relevant laws on patents, trademarks and copyrights. The outline requires all amendments be completed by 2020.

Xu Chao, Deputy Director of the Copyright Administration Department of the National Copyright Administration, said that his agency will crack down on piracy using five measures, including improving relevant laws and regulations and boosting legal and administrative protection.