By LI Linxu

In its latest move to stimulate innovation, China launched this year's administrative action plan for the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) recently.

A series of measures will be rolled out, such as fully leveraging the role of law enforcement protection standards and guidelines, advancing the improvement and implementation of IPR protection systems, and cracking down on abnormal patent applications and bad faith registration of trademarks.

The protection of foreign-related IPR will be strengthened, according to the plan recently released by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), vowing to further improve its response and guidance work mechanisms and to boost its capabilities in handling foreign-related IPR disputes.

The building of China National Intellectual Property Administration. (PHOTO: VCG)

The protection of IPR concerning people's livelihoods, will also be enhanced, particularly in the key areas of food and medicine, seeds, public health, and green and low-carbon technologies, according to the plan.

A new batch of national standardized markets for IPR protection will be accredited, said CNIPA, noting that the protection of new-type markets will be one of the focus points.

Meanwhile, the construction of the first batch of national IPR protection demonstration zones will be carried forward, and the selection of the second batch of such zones will be launched.

To meet the new situations under the new technologies, new industries, and new business modes, a new mode of digital protection of IPR will be actively explored, said CNIPA. The application of new technologies, such as Internet, big data, cloud computing, AI and block chains, in IPR protection, will be trialed.

The high-quality construction of national IPR protection centers and fast IPR service centers is also high on the agenda, according to the plan. Statistics show that to date, a total of 97 national IPR protection centers and fast IPR service centers have been set up across the country.

The measures are a follow up to the 20th CPC National Congress report, which vowed to strengthen legal protection of intellectual property rights, in order to establish a foundational system for all-around innovation.