Shen Changyu, director of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), made a work report on the 2022 National Conference of Directors of Intellectual Property Offices which was held in Beijing via teleconference, talking about key emphasis in work in 2022, including the in-depth participation in global IP governance.

    It’s not something new that China plans to participate in global IP governance, promoting international cooperation and competition in IPR and safeguarding the national interests in IP field. In fact, the director, Sheng Changyu, had introduced the issue as early as in 2019, and he also deployed a series of corresponding work from that time. For example, the system of Madrid international registration of trademarks and the international patent cooperation treaty were promoted, the cooperation documents between WIPO and Technology Innovation Support Center (TISC) were signed, and the international cooperation in trademarks and geographical indications were vigorously strengthened; By 2021, China’s participation in global IP governance became deeper, and it also had a stronger voice. In the past year, the RMB has become the currency for pricing and settlement of international fees related to the PCT, the China-EU Agreement on the Protection for Geographical Indications and Cooperation has been implemented in an orderly manner, and preparatory work for the effect of RCEP has been made. All these efforts and achievements have laid a solid foundation for China to participate in global intellectual property governance in 2022.

    In 2022, China is determined to set out following key work to deepen its participation in global governance, including speeding up the process of China's accession to the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs, actively participating in the formulation of international rules and standards for new fields and forms of business under the WIPO framework, implementing and learning relevant provisions of intellectual property rights in economic and trade agreements, strengthening guidance for local governments to participating in international IPR cooperation, and coordinating international cooperation and competition in intellectual property rights. China will also make efforts to deepen the Belt and Road cooperation in intellectual property, successfully host the Meeting of directors of BRICS Intellectual Property Offices, participate in five-bureau cooperation among China, the US, the EU, Japan and the ROK, promote the implementation of the agreements on geographical indications between China and the EU in the next stage, as well as that between China and France, and deepen the IPR exchanges with ASEAN, Africa and Latin America.

    Among the tasks mentioned above, great progress has been made in some of them, such as the Belt and Road cooperation, the BRICS Conference, the five-bureau cooperation, and the China-Eu Agreement on Geographical Indications Cooperation. While others, especially the goal of joining the Hague Agreement, is expected to be realized in 2022.

    The Hague Agreement is one of the special international treaties concluded by the member states of Paris Convention, constituting the system of international cooperation in industrial property rights together with the Madrid Agreement on the International Registration of Trademarks and the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in the field of invention patents. China has been striving to join the Agreement since 2015 when the Chinses State Council proposed that China would promote the process of joining the Hague Agreement.

    On June 1, 2021, the new Patent Law of the People's Republic of China took effect (the details could refer to：http://en.hengboip.com/news/laws/Patent-Law-of-the-Peoples-Republic-of-China-2020-Amendment.html), which clarified the protection for partial designs and extended the duration of design patent protection to 15 years, marking that China has removed the obstacles in the construction of patent legal system and completed the most important preparatory work for joining the Hague Agreement.

    If you want to know more about the work Report 2021, please click here:

    https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/art/2022/1/7/art_53_172646.html