China has recently taken significant steps to provide greater and improved intellectual property protection, bringing its intellectual property right (IPR) system more in line with international practice.

Though counterfeiting and piracy still exist - PRC-made counterfeit and pirated goods, including electronics, fabrics, electrical products and apparel and accessories are found in all corners of the world - there have been positive developments in the effort to curb these.

China has modelled its IPR protection legislation on The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Meanwhile, the country has also acceded to the two principal international conventions for IPR protection, namely: The Paris Convention for the Protection of IP (1984) and The Madrid Agreement for International Registration of Trademarks (1984).

Domestically, an IPR protection law has also been established by government legislation, administrative regulations and decrees in the areas of trademark, copyright and patent. This has led to the creation of a comprehensive legal framework to protect both local and foreign IPRs. China has not only introduced modern laws to deal with IP rights, but also built a large infrastructure for the administration and protection of IPR.

As China becomes more prosperous, and business of its companies is flourishing, IPR awareness among local industries has drastically improved. So much so that there is a progressive increase in IP cases where Chinese companies are the plaintiffs rather than the defendants.

According to China Economic Weekly, five out of 10 of the top IP cases in 2007 had foreign companies as defendants. Out of the most notable cases in Shanghai, Ningbo, Wenzhou and Hunan, around 68 percent were initiated by local companies as plaintiffs.

Recent developments on the legal front between late 2007 and now include the following:

Draft amendments to the Trademark Law which include cutting short the examination time and opposition time, extensions of time to foreign applicants' claim of rights by unregistered trade mark owner, multi-class applications, and registration of non-traditional trademarks, (such as sound, smell, motion).

Amendment of the Scientific and Technological Progress Law, which contains provisions that support the release of the National IP Strategy and which came into force on July 1, 2008.

"Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Hearing of Civil Disputes over Registered Trademarks, Enterprise Names and Earlier Civil Rights" issued by the Supreme People's Court of the PRC and came into force on March 1, 2008, which aims to provide guidance on the resolution of civil disputes involving registered trademarks, enterprise names and earlier civil rights.

Measures against ambush marketing were announced by the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee in June 2008 to prevent non-official sponsors from benefiting from their own private sponsorships with well-known athletes to protect the rights of official sponsors.

During this same period, China saw several high-profile cases involving big international brand names such as The North Face Apparel, Louis Vuitton and Sotheby's. In all of these cases, the People's Courts had upheld trademark and IP rights, and ordered the operators to either cease their use of similar or identical trademarks, or handed down an order for damages and in some cases, a public apology.

The author is a partner at Jones Day Hong Kong.

(HK Edition 09/03/2008 page3)