Exchange Meeting for Protecting Intellectual Property Rights of Foreign-Invested Enterprises

On May 12, 2016, the exchange meeting for protecting intellectual property rights (IPR) of foreign-invested enterprises was held in Beijing. More than 200 people attended the meeting, including Chai Haitao, Deputy Director General of the National Leading Group Office against IPR Infringement and Producing & Selling Counterfeits (hereinafter referred to as “NLGO”), Zhang Jingli, Deputy Director General of the Economic Crime Investigation Departmen under the Ministry of Public Security, Duan Yuping, Deputy Director General of the Copyright Management Division of the National Copyright Administration (NCA), Lu Yao, Director of the Politics & Law Division of the General Administration of Customs, and Wang Chunye, Deputy Director of the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), as well as representatives of the EU mission, British embassy, Australian embassy, relevant associations, and QBPC members. Duanzhi She, chairman of QBPC Government Cooperation Committee, presided over the meeting. 

In his opening address to the meeting, QBPC Chairman Mr. Colin Chen recalled the long history of the exchange meeting, reaffirmed its effects, and expressed his hope that the issues discussed at the meeting will receive attention from the relevant departments and be resolved. 

Following Mr. Chen’s speech, NLGO Deputy Director General Chai Haitao briefed the guests of the meeting on NLGO’s achievements during the last year and its main tasks for this year. NLGO’s achievements in 2015 are mainly reflected in the following aspects:

1) enhanced criminal strike on IPR infringement;

2) more closely connected administrative enforcement and criminal and judicial enforcement;

3) further progress made in strikes on Internet IPR infringement and counterfeiting;

4) the “fresh wind” operation actively conducted overseas to build the image of Chinese goods;

5) IPR protection strengthened in special areas such as program for using legitimate software and rectifications of the rural market and vehicle fuel market. 

With detailed data, Deputy Director General Chai vividly described NLGO’s support for the work above and achievements it made in 2015. In 2016, the NLGO will

1) continue to carry out special rectifications in key areas;

2) actively promote the improvement of Chinese laws, such as the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, Copyright Law, Pharmaceutical Administration Law, Patent Law, and the E-commerce Law, etc.;

3) further strengthen the cross-regional regulatory cooperation;

4) create a favorable social environment for IPR protection and improve the informatization level and early warning capacity of the government’s management. 

After that, Deputy Director General Duan Yuping further reported NCA’s work on special operations and the use-legitimate-software program in the charge of NCA. She expressed her welcome for QBPC member companies to communicate more with NCA and provide comments and suggestions. 

Representatives of committees made speeches on specific subjects later. Michael Yu, Vice Chair of QBPC Legal Committee, introduce the subject of enterprise name infringement and amendment of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law. He gave credit for the new regulation of enterprise names infringing issue in the Anti-Unfair Competition Law. At the same time, he put forward comments and suggestions in more depth, based on further summarizing practical experience. 

Jack Chang, QBPC Vice Chairman made a speech on Trademark Infringement and Malicious Trademark Squatting Involved in Foreign-Related OEM Processing. Vice Chairman Chang sorted out in details for all aspects of international and domestic influence of foreign-related OEM processing, the judicial and administrative law enforcement, etc. He thinks that foreign-related OEM processing should be deemed as trademark infringement in principle, but further judge to be non-infringement according to the principles of good faith in exceptional cases. He also calls for facing up to the far-reaching influence of this issue, to advance national interests and China’s international reputation. 

Kavin Ma, Chairman of QBPC Best Practices / Enforcement Committee made a speech on the subject of “How to Improve the Deterrent of Criminal Crackdown on IPR Cases”. He put forward problems and suggestions one by one on the aspects of standards of registration, registration conditions of important case, ultimate standard of investigation, victim status of right holders and build a complete system of IPR protection by the Criminal Law. 

S. Sam Li, Vice Chairman of QBPC Patent & Innovation Committee, conducted a detailed elaboration on the determination of trade secrets, trade secrets infringement, the rules of evidence, and related damages, combined with amendment of relevant terms of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law. 

Conan Chen, Vice Chairman of QBPC Best Practices / Enforcement Committee talked about the valuation of infringing goods after listening to opinions of QBPC members. He hopes that NLGO will conduct a special research of this issue to ensure fair law enforcement. 

Steven Wang, Vice Chairman of QBPC and Coordinator of QBPC Internet IWG, made a speech on online IPR Infringement. Mr. Wang said that selling counterfeits online had become a new normal of IPR infringement. With some new characteristics, selling counterfeits online has further become the new trend of cross-border e-commerce. E-commerce platforms should take a zero-tolerance attitude towards selling counterfeits online, and the public security organs should intensify their “cloud sword” operation to eliminate counterfeit-selling gangs both online and offline. 

At last, Jiang Tao, representative of the Intel Corporation made a speech on Amending the Provision of Relatively Dominant Position in the Anti-Unfair Competition Law. 

Deputy Director General Chai and member representatives from leader team responded to QBPC representatives with presence with regard to issues of Anti-Competition Law, foreign-related OEM processing, online IPR infringement and protection of sports events and he asked QBPC to provide NLGO with formal written reports on each specific issue. All parties spoke highly of this meeting