The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) on April 26 released the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement and Protection Report 2021 (《2021年中国知识产权保护状况》). China’s State Council published two foundational documents the Guidelines for Building a Powerful Country with Intellectual Property Rights (2021-2035) (《知识产权强国建设纲要（2021—2035 年）》) and the Road Map for the Protection and Application of Intellectual Property Rights under the 14th Five-Year Plan (《“十四五”国家知识产权保护和运用规划》) in September and October 2021 respectively, setting numerical development goals for intellectual property for the duration of three consecutive Five-Year Plan terms beginning in 2021.

The report shows domestically, the level of mainland China’s general public’s satisfaction with the nation’s IPR enforcement and protection continued to improve in 2021, scoring 80.61 points as opposed to 80.05 points in 2020.

Internationally, the Global Innovation Index 2021 (GII 2021) released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in September 2021 ranked China 12th place in the world, up two places from the previous year. China had maintained the upward momentum in the rankings for nine years running. Per statistics released on February 10, 2022 by the WIPO, China remained the top filer of Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications for the third year in a row. Chinese applicants filed 69,540 PCT applications in 2021, an increase of 0.9% versus 2020. The European Business in China Business Confidence Survey 2021 (BCS) released in June 2021 by Beijing-headquartered European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, a non-profit and non-governmental organization established to support and represent the interests of companies from the European Union operating in China, demonstrated that for the first time, more than half of the European companies surveyed deemed the level of China's IPR enforcement to be adequate or very good.

In terms of civil law enforcement, the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) heard 4,243 cases and issued rulings in 3,557 cases, up 22.28% and 9.11% respectively from 2020. Local people’s courts and courts of special jurisdiction heard 550,263 cases and issued rulings in 515,861 cases as trial courts, up 24.12% and 16.52% respectively from 2020. Of the total of the IP civil cases, patent cases numbered 31,618, with a year-on-year increase of 10.98%, trademark cases 124,716, up 59.62%; copyright cases 360,489, up 14.99%; technology contract cases 4,015, up 22.52%; 8,419 unfair competition cases 8,419, up 78.26%; and other IPRs cases 21,006, with a year-on-year increase of 38.01%. Local people’s courts and courts of special jurisdiction heard 49,084 cases and issued rulings in 45,468 cases as appellate courts, up 14.22% and 4.5% respectively from 2020.

In terms of administrative law enforcement, the cases SPC heard 2,852 cases and issued rulings in 2,487, up 49.4% and 43.34% from 2020. Local people’s courts and courts of special jurisdiction heard 20,563 cases and issued rulings in 19,342 cases, up 11.37% and 7.80% from 2020 respectively. Of the total of the IP administrative cases, patent cases numbered 1,810, with a year-on-year increase of 27.73%; trademark cases 18,734, up 9.97%; and copyright cases 19, up seven from 2020. Local people’s courts and courts of special jurisdiction heard 8,215 cases and issued rulings in 7,418 cases as appellate courts, up 34.85% and 19.97% respectively from 2020. Of all cases in which appellate courts issued rulings, rulings in 5,636 cases were upheld, rulings in 1,597 cases reversed, one case remanded for retrial, 145 cases withdrawn, 11 cases dismissed, and 28 cases resolved by other means.

In terms of criminal law enforcement, Local people’s courts and courts of special jurisdiction heard 6,276 cases and issued rulings in 6,046 cases, up 13.2% and 9.53% respectively on a year-on-year basis. Of the total of the IP criminal cases, trademark cases numbered 5,869, copyright cases 333, trademark cases 2,558, anti-counterfeiting cases 2,623, copyright cases 313, and trade secrets cases 61.

The full text is available here.