IP Work Achieves a Stable Start to the "15th Five-Year Plan" Period, Solidifying the Position as a Major IP Nation

In the first half of this year, China granted 453,000 invention patents and approved 2.055 million registered trademarks. The country recognized 64 geographical indication products, approved 8 geographical indications as collective or certification marks, and issued 5,061 registration certificates for integrated circuit layout designs. Two new national-level IP protection centers and six rapid rights enforcement centers were established, with over 19,000 companies benefiting from patent and trademark pledge financing.

IP Creation Quality Steadily Improves

As of the end of June, China held 2.36 million high-value invention patents, with the number per 10,000 people rising to 16.8. Trademark structures have continued to optimize, with service-based trademarks now accounting for 31% of all valid registered trademarks.

Enterprise Innovation Momentum Continues to Rise

By the end of June, 574,000 domestic enterprises held valid invention patents, totaling 4.254 million, which represents 74.8% of the domestic total—an increase of 0.3 percentage points from the end of last year. Brand protection awareness is growing, with one in four business entities owning a valid registered trademark. The number of entities using geographical indication special marks has reached 55,000.

Innovation Momentum in Key Areas Intensifies

As of the end of June, valid invention patents in next-generation information technology fields such as AI, the internet, cloud computing, and big data accounted for 16.5% of the total. The rapid accumulation of patents in frontier tracks is empowering and enhancing the creation of new economic growth points. The trademark brand layout in key industries continues to improve, providing solid support for the branded development of related industries.

Key Focus Areas for IP Work in the "15th Five-Year Plan" Period

Work during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period will emphasize five key aspects:

First, highlighting service to the national development strategy by further integrating the IP system with economic and social development, actively serving national comprehensive innovation, high-quality development, and high-level opening-up.

Second, focusing on cultivating new development momentum by strengthening the supply of IP systems and technology to inject new vitality, provide new drivers, and shape new advantages for high-quality economic and social development.

Third, emphasizing a high-quality development orientation by optimizing indicator definitions and more scientifically and reasonably setting metrics that directly reflect IP's contribution to economic development.

Fourth, responding to technological innovation needs by further improving IP protection rules, strengthening IP protection and utilization on a larger scale, enhancing cross-regional and cross-departmental IP collaboration, helping to better stimulate innovation vitality, and seize development opportunities earlier.

Fifth, highlighting coordinated regional development by strengthening IP's supporting role for key regions and major strategic implementations, promoting the synergy of IP policies with regional development advantages, and enhancing regional development vitality.

Additionally, the national "15th Five-Year Plan" Outline continues to include "high-value invention patents per 10,000 people" as a key indicator for national economic and social development. This fully demonstrates the country's strategic determination to persist in innovation-driven development and accelerate the cultivation of new productive forces. It continuously solidifies the innovation foundation, further releases a clear policy direction for sustained encouragement and promotion of innovation, and injects stable expectations into high-quality economic and social development. Innovation momentum is being continuously strengthened, effectively guiding innovation resources to gather in key areas and entities, promoting the growth of emerging and future industries. Greater emphasis is placed on innovation quality, with indicator targets focusing on active achievability and practicality. This clarifies the task requirements for innovation quality, guides the effective improvement of quality and reasonable growth in quantity, and continuously releases policy signals to encourage competition, fostering the formation of more landmark, original, and disruptive innovations.

China's International IP Competitiveness Significantly Strengthened

In the first five months of the year, China's IP royalty export earnings reached 45.5 billion yuan, a substantial year-on-year increase of 64.9%. This indicates that Chinese enterprises are actively using IP to shape new international competitive advantages and promote the high-quality development of the country's service trade.

China has established 83 national-level IP protection centers and 54 rapid rights enforcement centers nationwide, forming a balanced, multi-tiered, and clearly oriented rapid collaborative protection network. These centers provide "one-stop" comprehensive IP protection services, including rapid pre-examination, rapid rights confirmation, and rapid rights enforcement, to innovators in local advantageous industries.

Improving IP Protection Systems in Emerging Fields

First, IP protection systems in emerging fields are continuously innovating. The review model is being persistently improved to enhance the quality and efficiency of IP reviews, effectively adapting to the rapid development, efficient innovation, and fast iteration characteristics of emerging fields. Second, the transformation of IP protection achievements in emerging fields is accelerating. Around areas like the Internet of Things and AI, high-standard industry IP operation centers are being built to promote the industrialization of patents in emerging fields. Third, the IP protection environment in emerging fields is being continuously optimized. Policy documents such as the "Opinions on Further Strengthening IP Protection in the Photovoltaic Industry" and the "'Internet+' IP Protection Work Plan" have been issued to enhance the effectiveness of IP protection in key areas.

First Comprehensive Revision of the Trademark Law, Shifting from "Partial Amendments" to "Systematic Improvement"

On June 26 this year, the 23rd session of the 14th Standing Committee of the National People's Congress reviewed and passed the newly revised Trademark Law. This is the first comprehensive revision of the Trademark Law since its implementation in 1983, marking a shift in China's trademark legislation from "partial amendments" to "systematic improvement."

Key highlights of this revision include:

First, highlighting honesty and trustworthiness. It explicitly emphasizes that the application for registration and use of trademarks must follow the principle of good faith, and rights must not be abused to harm national interests, public interests, or the legitimate rights and interests of others. Second, improving trademark registration conditions. It further broadens the categories of registrable trademark elements, stipulating that dynamic marks and their combinations with related elements can be applied for registration, responding to the needs of new technology and new business enterprises. Third, perfecting the well-known trademark system. The term "determination" for the well-known status of a trademark is revised to "confirmation," curbing the phenomenon of excessive pursuit of well-known status. It no longer distinguishes between cross-class protection for registered and unregistered well-known trademarks, better aligning with high-standard international economic and trade rules. Fourth, strengthening trademark management. It improves the exit mechanism for idle trademarks, addressing the issue of "registration without use." It severely cracks down on the use of registered trademarks that mislead the public. Fifth, tightening supervision of trademark agencies. It clarifies professional codes of conduct, entrusted matters, and filing obligations, details the circumstances of violations and penalty standards, further strengthens industry self-discipline, and promotes the healthy development of the trademark agency industry. Sixth, clarifying departmental responsibilities. It further clarifies the responsibilities of departments for trademark registration, management, and enforcement, improves the connection mechanism between administrative and criminal cases, and the cross-departmental collaboration mechanism. It explicitly requires the State Administration for Market Regulation's trademark department to strengthen the construction of informatized and intelligent trademark public service systems to enhance the convenience of trademark business handling.

The revised Trademark Law will officially take effect on January 1 of the following year.