The National Intellectual Property Administration of China ("CNIPA") has recently issued the Circular on Several Measures for Enabling Intellectual Property to Serve the Innovative Development of Private Enterprises (the "Circular").
The Circular sets forth measures in ten aspects, including "legally and strictly protecting intellectual property rights (IPRs) held by private enterprises", "improving the rapid and coordinated protection of private enterprises' IPRs", "broadening the coverage of IP pledge financing for private enterprises" and "guiding IP operation funds to serve the innovative development of private enterprises". Among others, the Circular expressly states that, efforts will be made to create a sound environment for fair competition, vitalize the private sector in the IP service industry, and treat state-owned and privately-owned IP service agencies equally in respect of market access, licensing examination and approval, industry regulation, etc. Also, the time frame needed for examination and approval will be shortened to ten days for patent agencies, and regulation will be strengthened during and after their patent agency business. Moreover, the Circular urges improving the experiment system for patent data services, making public a broader spectrum of basic patent data, and gradually opening up the trademark database, in a bid to make it more convenient for enterprises to access information about IPRs.