SIPO Endeavors to Promote Five Mechanisms for IP Enforcement and Protection

June 5, 2007

In order to expedite the establishment and the perfection of the five work mechanisms for IP enforcement, the State Intellectual Property Office is going to develop the pilot work of IP enforcement, which is aimed at providing active protection of the legitimate interests of the IP right holders irrespective of their nationalities and areas. For the said purpose, SIPO will design the uniformed device to strengthen the seriousness in IP enforcement and the protection of personal safety of the enforcement officials.

In the Guidance Opinions regarding the Strengthening of IP Protection and Enforcement, SIPO requests the Intellectual Property authorities of all levels in China to strengthen the enforcement ability and establishment of regulations, to crack down on IP infringement and to improve the effect of IP enforcement so as to provide active protection of the IP right. The five enforcement mechanisms are:

1. IP aid mechanism:

The IP administrative authorities of all levels should set up local IP Aid Centers to provide the local IP right owners with aid in IP protection.

2. IP enforcement liability mechanism:

The IP administrative authorities of all levels should improve their liability mechanism in IP enforcement, and should not refuse the requests by parties for mediation. Besides, the local IP administrative authorities should ensure the legitimacy and justice of the enforcement procedure and integrity of the enforcement files.

3. Cross-area collaboration mechanism:

The cross-area collaboration mechanism in IP enforcement should be improved continuously. The IP administrative authorities of all levels should support each other to avoid delay without reason during all the enforcement procedures such as evidential investigation, transfer of cases, provision of the information regarding the involved parties, and enforcement measures.

4. Evaluation and award mechanism:

The IP administrative authorities of all levels should expedite the set-up of the evaluation and award mechanism in IP enforcement by working out a uniformed evaluation criteria and method thereof.

5. Information disclosure and exchange mechanism

The information disclosure and exchange mechanism for IP enforcement and protection should be further improved. Those IP authorities at provincial level or in the cities with heavy enforcement tasks should disclose the relevant information regarding their local IP enforcements by year, and report the accurate statistics and database concerning IP enforcement and protection to SIPO each month.