During the group study session, Xi stressed that protecting intellectual property rights means protecting innovation.

The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee held its 25th group study on Nov 30. The theme of this study is significant. When presiding over the study, General Secretary Xi Jinping used five "Guanxi (relationship)" to describe the work in succession -- guanxi relates to the modernization of China's governance system and governance capacity, high-quality development, the well-being of the people, the overall situation of China's opening up, and national security.This work is to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in China.

Intellectual property innovation

Yi Jiming, professor of Peking University Law School and director of The International Intellectual Property Research Center of Peking University, was there to give a lecture.

Three years ago, on November 20, 2017, General Secretary Xi Jinping chaired the first Meeting of the 19th CPC Central Committee's Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reform.The Meeting stressed that the protection of intellectual property rights is to protect innovation.Three years later, when presiding over the group study session of the Political Bureau, the general secretary once again pointed out that innovation is the primary driving force for development, and protecting intellectual property rights means protecting innovation.

What is intellectual property? The Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, adopted on May 28 this year, defines intellectual property as the exclusive rights lawfully enjoyed by the right holder with respect to the following objects: works; inventions, utility models and appearance designs; trademark; geographical indications; trade secrets; layout design of integrated circuits; new plant varieties; other objects prescribed by law. These are the fruits of intellectual labor and the source of innovation and development.

Strengthening IPR protection is one of the four major measures China will take to further open up, said Xi at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2018 on April 10, 2018."This is the most important part of improving the property rights protection system," he said. "It is also the biggest incentive to improve China's economic competitiveness."

Because of its importance, China's intellectual property protection began shortly after the founding of new China. At present, China is transforming from a country of importing intellectual property to a country of creating intellectual property, and its intellectual property work is shifting from the pursuit of quantity to the improvement of quality.

Strengthen the top-level design to solve the protection problem

When presiding over the group study, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed six requirements for strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights in China.The first point is to strengthen the top-level design of intellectual property protection.

The 14th Five-year Plan, adopted at the fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, clearly states that "we will strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights and significantly improve the effectiveness of the transfer and transformation of scientific and technological achievements." When leading a group study on Tuesday, Xi stressed the need to formulate a plan for the protection and application of intellectual property rights in the 14th Five-Year Plan period, and clarify the goals, tasks, measures and implementation blueprints. The General Secretary pointed out that we should give priority to ourselves, put the interests of the people first, and give fair and reasonable protection. We should not only strictly protect intellectual property rights, but also ensure both public interests and incentives for innovation.

Protecting intellectual property is a conundrum. On the one hand, we should respect labour, knowledge, talent and creativity, and on the other hand, we should avoid knowledge blockade and create or even widen the scientific and technological gap. The principle of "putting ourselves first, putting the interests of the people first, and fair and reasonable protection", put forward by the General Secretary, is a key to solving this problem.

Building a Wall and a Web for Intellectual Property

The second requirement of General Secretary Xi Jinping is to improve the rule of Law in IPR protection.The General Secretary pointed out that while strictly implementing the relevant provisions of the Civil Code, we should speed up the improvement of relevant laws and regulations to enhance the consistency between laws. He also stressed that in key areas and regions where people have strong concerns, public opinion is concerned, and where infringement and counterfeiting are frequent, heavy blows should be struck to the end and deterrence should be fully implemented.

In mid-November, for the first time in the party's history, the Central Committee's work Conference on comprehensively governing the country by law was held. At the Meeting, Xi stressed that the focus should be on solving prominent problems in the field of rule of law, unswervingly follow the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, and push forward the modernization of China's governance system and capacity on the track of rule of law. It is an important content to improve the legal level of intellectual property protection.

When presiding over the group study, Xi Jinping made it clear that the protection of intellectual property rights should be strengthened. He stressed that to build a big protection work pattern, to enhance the system protection capacity. At the 30th meeting of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reform on December 5, 2016, it was stressed that the whole chain of creation, use, protection, management and service of intellectual property rights should be opened up. The General Secretary reiterated this requirement when presiding over the group study.

From deepening reform to safeguarding national security

Intellectual property protection is always on the way

Xi stressed the need to deepen the reform of the IPR protection system and mechanism.In recent years, China has promoted a series of reforms in the field of intellectual property, from the establishment of the Intellectual Property Court, to the re-establishment of the China National Intellectual Property Administration, to the review and approval of the overall plan for the comprehensive management of intellectual property, to the review and approval of the opinions on several issues concerning the reform and innovation in the field of intellectual property adjudication.When presiding over collective study this time, the General Secretary stressed that we should continue to pay close attention to the implementation, and put forward a series of new reform topics.

At the recent Central Work Conference on Comprehensively Governing the country by law, the General Secretary pointed out that the rule of law at home and abroad should be promoted in a coordinated way.While presiding over the group study, the general Secretary pointed out that international cooperation and competition in the field of intellectual property rights should be promoted in a coordinated way.In particular, he stressed the need to be deeply involved in global intellectual property governance under the framework of WIPO.

On January 23, 2018, the Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reform of the CPC Central Committee deliberated and adopted the Working Measures on The External Transfer of Intellectual Property Rights (Trial). Xi Jinping pointed out at the meeting that the transfer of intellectual property rights should adhere to the overall concept of national security.When presiding over the collective study session, the general secretary stressed the need to safeguard national security in the field of intellectual property rights.He pointed out that the independent research and development and protection of key and core technologies related to national security should be strengthened, and the transfer of intellectual property rights related to national security should be managed in accordance with the law.