April 26 is the 22nd World Intellectual Property Day. According to the latest authoritative report, China has increased the number of market entities by 100 million in the past 10 years, thanks to the significant enhancement of intellectual property protection and the continuous efforts in optimizing the business environment.

At a press conference held at the State Council Information Office on April 26, the Office of the National Leading Group on the Fight against IPR Infringement and Counterfeiting released the Report on the Latest Development of IPR Protection and Business Environment in China (2021), which comprehensively presents the new achievements in China’s IPR protection, new progress in optimizing the business environment and new initiatives in international exchanges and cooperation in 2021.

Gan Lin, Director of the Office of the National Leading Group on the Fight against IPR Infringement and Counterfeiting and Deputy Director of the State Administration for Market Regulation, said at the press conference on the same day that the Chinese government’s unremitting efforts to protect intellectual property rights and combat IPR infringement and counterfeiting have played an active role in building an innovative country, promoting high-quality development, fostering world scientific and technological progress and contributing to global economic recovery, and have won recognition and praise from the international community.

For the first time ever, more than half of the enterprises surveyed considered China’s IPR enforcement efforts “good enough” or “very good”, as shown in the European Business in China Business Confidence Survey 2021 released by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

The report notes that China’s commercial system reform has intensified, further enhancing the fairness of market competition and stimulating the innovation and development dynamics of various market players. The year 2021 has seen China’s market players exceed 150 million, with the activity rate of enterprises remaining at around 70%. In recent years, China’s private enterprises have contributed more than 55 percent of tax revenue, 55 percent of exports, 60 percent of investment and 70 percent of inventions and innovations.

“The Chinese government has always treated the intellectual property rights of both Chinese and foreign-owned enterprises equally and protected them equally.” Gan Lin said a series of positive initiatives by the Chinese government have created an enabling environment for the development of foreign-invested enterprises in China.

According to statistics, 110,000 invention patents were granted to foreign applicants in China in 2021, up 23 percent year-on-year; 194,000 trademarks were registered, up 5.2 percent year on year. Among them, the number of invention patents granted and trademarks registered by American applicants in China increased by 32.1% and 17.3% respectively.

In this respect, the 2021 China Business Climate Survey Report released by the US-China Business Council shows that 95% of companies surveyed continue to be profitable in China, and 74% of companies surveyed identify China as the most important country for their global strategy or one of the top five priority countries.

Source：Xinhua