White Paper on the Intellectual Property Rights Protection in China in 2002

2002 was the first year since China's entry into World Trade Organization (WTO).

In this year, the council of WTO reviewed and approved China's fulfillment of the clauses of  TRIPs  since it has been a member of WTO in 2001, and other members of WTO positively appraised the progress made in the area of intellectual property (IP) and the efforts to perform its promise.

Also in the year 2002, Chinese government has obtained a remarkable achievement in the area of IP protection. The legal framework for IP, which is mainly constituted by Patent Law, Trademark Law and Copyright Law, has been heavily improved and comprehensively implemented. The amounts of applications for patents and registrations for trademarks both sharply increased once again，and in the area of copyright protection, striking achievements also can be seen. The customs protection for IP has greatly contributed to the promotion of foreign trade services. The Ministry of Culture prescribed severe measures to fight against the infringement and piracy. To protect copyright, the Public Security kept on fighting against the illegal infringement and piracy rigorously. The awareness to protect new plant varieties was gradually rooted in people. The international communications and cooperation in the field of intellectual property has been much more frequent, extensive and abundant.

I. Important activities and Key events of Intellectual Property Protection

From May 21 to 22, 2002, for the first time, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) cooperated with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and sponsored the Sino-African Intellectual Property Forum on IP in Beijing. In the session of the Forum, Premier Zhu Rongji once again met Dr. Idiris, Director General of WIPO.

The main topic of the Forum was focused on four topics: IP and Economic Development, IP and Information Technology, Challenges Faced by the IP System and Newly Emerged IP Issues in the 21st Century.

Vice Premier Wen Jiabao firstly delivered a speech at the opening ceremony, and he said: "The world is witnessing the fast development of science and technology, a knowledge economy and economic globalization, all of which are supported by the strength of ownership of IPRs. Intellectual property plays an increasingly role in promoting national economic development and social progress, enhancing comprehensive national power and in improving international competitiveness. It has been commonly recognized by all countries in the world to encourage innovation, to attach importance to intellectual property protection and to strengthen cooperation in the field of intellectual property." He also praised that the Forum was an important event for China and African countries in strengthening exchanges and cooperation in the field of intellectual property, and indicated the strong will and firm brief of China and African countries in positively creating a favorable environment for encouraging intellectual innovation and protecting IPRs and a hopeful and positive future together.` 

WIPO Director General Dr. Idiris expressed his appreciation at the opening ceremony to Chinese government for its support and cooperation to this Forum. He mentioned that during the past twenty years China had made significant achievements in the field of intellectual property, and African countries also had taken advantage of their great potential in protecting IPRs. He hoped that both sides would closely cooperate in this field and would promote the development of respective intellectual property system so as to make contributions to global intellectual property protection.

Director General of State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), Mr. Wang Jingchuan moderated the opening ceremony while Mr. Roberto Castelo, Deputy Director General of WIPO, Mr. Wang Zhongfu, commissioner of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), and Mr. Shi Zongyuan, Commissioner of the National Copyright Administration (NCA), attended the ceremony. 

On May 21, 2002, in order to enhance a comprehensive cooperation relationship between China and WIPO in the area of IP, including both industrial property and copyright, SIPO and WIPO signed the Framework Agreement of Cooperation between SIPO and WIPO. WIPO Director General Dr. Idiris and Director General of SIPO, Mr. Wang Jingchuan signed the Agreement representing both sides.

From May 23 to 25,2002, the SIPO and WIPO co-organized the Second Forum on Creativity and Invention -A Better Future for Humanity in the 21st Century in Beijing. Mr. Wang Jingchuan, commissioner of SIPO, pointed out at the opening ceremony that technological innovation had become the basis for developing a knowledge economy, for science and technology had closely merged with the many economies of the world. The basic way to promote technological innovation was to provide an inner motivational mechanism for technological innovation and to create an external legal and political environment to protect technological innovation and to maintain fair and orderly competition. The pilot strategy of science and technology and education initiated by the Chinese government many years ago must take the sound intellectual property system as an important means to raise our international competitiveness. While all countries were improving their innovation system, China would like to devote efforts to the common progress of the whole world.

According to China's promises in the protocol on entry into WTO, in a span of eight years since China's being a member of WTO, WTO would have the right to make annually transitional review and approval for China. So on September 17,2002, the council of WTO, for the first time, reviewed and approved China's fulfillment of the promises to implement TRIPs agreement and other signed protocols.

Before the review and approval, China referred fourteen reports to WTO, including the laws and rules of China in the area of IP, and answered 101 written questions, which were put forward to China by six members of the WTO, including European Union, United States of America, Japan, Australia, and so on.

The members of the WTO positively appraised the achievements acquired by China in the area of intellectual property (IP) and especially the efforts in performing its promises. Some of them expressed their wishes that China should further enhance the enforcement of laws in the area of IP.

II. Great success Achieved in the Area of Patent

In 2002, SIPO received a total of 252,631 patent applications including inventions, utility models and industrial designs, an increase of 49,058 over the previous year (203,573). The increasing rate was 24.1%.  951 international applications were filed and 697 requests were filed for the international preliminary examination, of which 738 were completed.

The year 2002 had the following features (1) There were 80,232 patent applications for inventions, an increase of 26.9% over the previous year (63,204), such a rapid growth was based on the growth of the last two years (2000,2001). There were 39,806 domestic applications for inventions, an increase of 32.5% over the previous year, 11% more than the rate of growth of the foreign applications in the same term. This rapid growth was attributed to the enhancement of the civil patent consciousness. (2) According to the national and foreign filings, most of the domestic applications were patents for utility models and industrial designs, accounting for 80.6%, while most of the foreign ones were patents for inventions, accounting for 85.9% of the total. (3) With regard to the constitution of all patent applications, domestic applications of patents for inventions were 39,806, and 40,426 were foreign applications. Domestic and foreign applications took an almost equal share of the total of the new filings. For utility models and industrial designs, domestic applications accounted for more than 90% of the total and almost maintained the same ratio compared with the previous years.

By December 31, 2002, SIPO had received a total of 1,622,631 patent applications, of which 1,344,177 were domestic applications, accounting for 82.8%, and 278,454 were foreign patent applications, accounting for 17.2%.

Since SIPO has been PCT member state in 1994, a total of 4,372 international patent applications had been received by the end of December 31, 2002. 4,220 international searching copies were received, of which 3,767 were established. 2,282 requests were received for international preliminary examination, and 1,769 were made. 101,031 international applications and 28 applications for utility models entered into the national phase of China.

By December 31 of 2002, there were 116 countries and regions which filed for patent protection in China. 75 countries and regions filed applications for inventions in China in 2002. There were 7 more countries which filed patent applications: United Arab Republic, Cook, Czech Republic, Mauritius, Salvador, Syria and Tunis. The top ten countries and regions with the most applications were Japan, United States of America, Germany, Korea, Holland, France, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Sweden and Italy.

In 2002, SIPO granted 21,473 patents for inventions, an increase of 31.8%, 57,484 patents for utility models, an increase of 5.7%, 53,422 patents for industrial designs, an increase of 22.6%.

By the end of 2002, SIPO had granted a total of 883,035 patents, and 132,399 patents were granted in 2002, an increase of 15.9% over the previous year (114,251).

In 2002, 961 requests were filed for reexamination, an increase of 56.0% or 345 more than the year 2001. Among them, the number of those related to patent applications for inventions rejected by essential examination department and those against decisions on requests for revocation added up to 802, accounting for 83.4% of the total. 785 cases were concluded for the reexamination in the year 2002. 662 cases were being examined in the end of 2002.

1,752 requests were received for invalidation, 436 more than the previous year or an increase of 33.1%, of which 130 related to patents for inventions, 756 for utility models and 866 for industrial designs. 1,384 cases were being examined in the end of 2002.

The local intellectual property offices of each province, autonomous region and municipality under the central government received 1,442 patent disputes, of which 1,291 were closed. 1,390 related to infringement, 29 related to disputes over the ownership, 23 related to other issues. 104 cases related to patent for inventions, 622 for utility models, and 716 for industrial designs. 262 cases were settled, and 711 were handled through arbitration, 239 were withdrawn, 28 were decided and 51 were rejected. 177 cases were settled as counterfeit patents and 1,679 cases were settled as pass-off of patents by the local intellectual property administrative offices.

From 1985 to the end of 2002, above-mentioned offices had received a total of 9,095 cases of patent disputes, of which 7,959 were closed.

In 2002, SIPO received a total of 183 applications for integrated circuit layout design, 130 were granted.

III. Great Progress Made for Trademark Protection

In 2002, the new Trademark Law and the new Implementing Rules of the Trademark Law has been implemented in China. This year also witnessed the great progresses made in the area of trademark protection work in China.

In 2002, the trademark office received the most trademark applications, and the total was 371,936 covering both goods and services, which made an increase of 101,519 over that of the year 2001. There was a rapid growth of the domestic registrations, which were 321,034, an increase of 91,259 over the previous year, accounting for 86.3%; the foreign applications were 37,221, accounting for 10.0%; 13,681 were related to the extension of the territorial extension of international trademark registrations in accordance with the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks, accounting for 3.7% of the total applications. In terms of the classes, the most registrations covered 25th class (clothes), 9th class (electronics), 30th class (food) and 5th class (medicines), and the numbers were 58,195, 26,656, 23,699 and 17,125. 17,518 applications were received for renewal, and 6,379 were for trademark opposition. 79,370 were for changes, assignment, cancellation, and revocation. 15,672 were for the records of the trademark licensing contract. In the year, the office received a total of 490,875 applications.

In the year, the trademark office reviewed 223,793 trademarks. 37,046 were related to the changes of registered trademarks, 40,938 related to the assignment, 17,638 related to the renewal, 35,999 related to the revocation and cancellation; 19,480 related to the records of the trademark licensing contracts. In the year, a total of 212,533 registered trademarks were approved. By the end of 2002, there had been a total of 1,664,810 valid registered trademarks.

In the year, the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board received a total of 6,228 applications for review. Among them, 4,622 were rejected, 535 proceeded with the opposition procedures, and 1,034 were requested for settlement of disputes. 37 reexaminations for registered trademarks were cancelled. 58 applications were rejected. 66 applications were allowed to withdraw by the applicants. 763 reexaminations for registered trademarks，17 reexaminations with the opposition procedures and 52 trademark disputes were rejected by adjudication.

In the year, the Administrations for Industry and Commerce (AICs) at various levels, in accordance with uniform arrangement to reorganize and discipline the market order, taking advantage of the chance to comprehensively fulfill the TRIPs and implement the Trademark Law and its implementing rules, actively explored and improved the administrative enforcement system of trademark which can suit the new forms of the socialistic market economy, firmly protected the legal rights of trademark registers and the profits of consumers, made new contributions to maintain a uniform, open and regularly competitive order of market economy. According to statistics, all across the country in 2002, AICs at various levels investigated and prosecuted a total of 39,105 illegal trademark cases, removed 153 million illegal marks, seized 4,188 tools, moulds and printing plates directly used for trademark infringement, destroyed 4,183,64 tons of infringed products, and the total fines were 214 million RMB. 78 persons involved in 59 cases were transferred to the judicial organs for criminal liabilities.

AICs at various levels further implemented the scheme by the State Council to reorganize and discipline the market order, especially in the field of trademark infringement on food, medicines, automobile accessories, clothes, cosmetic, and so on, comprehensively supervised the process of printing, production and circulation of trademark. Local AICs also persisted in the work style associating everyday supervision with special administration, actively took all kinds of special actions, including special administration of urban and rural market, to investigate and prosecute a lot of trademark infringement cases with great value, bad influence and serious harm. In Sichuan province, AICs checked a lot of enterprises, marketplaces and individual businesses with a total number of 6,147, seized and removed 55,940 counterfeited "green food" marks and fined a sum of 73,000 RMB. In Henan Province, the AICs checked various enterprises, marketplaces and individual businesses with a total number of 21,627, inspected 36 kinds and 147 species of merchandises, and fined a sum of more than 90,000 RMB. In Xian of Shanxi province, to carry out the duty of trademark supervision and management in Countrywide Exchange for Sugar and Alcohol, AICs investigated and punished 9 enterprises that illegally used counterfeited marks of "green food", seized and removed 16,500 marks, and totally fined a sum of 71,700 RMB.

Since April 1, 2002, the Regulations of the Olympic Marks (hereinafter called "Regulations") promulgated by the State Council has been brought into effect. The Regulations was studied, researched, propagandized and implemented by local AICs allover the country carefully and strictly. Local AICs also tried their best to fulfill their responsibility to enforce the Regulations strictly, to fought against all kinds of Olympic marks' infringements severely, and consequently obtained remarkable achievement. As the local AICs of Beijing, the holder of the 29th Olympic Games, the AICs of Beijing settled 99 cases related to the Olympic marks during this year, seized and destroyed more than 270,000 infringing marks, fined 310 thousand RMB. The AICs of Anhui province spent a whole month in checking the use of the Olympic marks, dispatched 4,180 executive personnel and 689 cars, checked 169 marketplaces, 12,548 enterprises and individual businesses, investigated and prosecuted 69 cases of infringing Olympic marks, fined more than 260,000 RMB.

IV. Comprehensive Progress in the area of the Copyright

In 2002, along with the promulgation and implementation of the newly revised Implementing Rules of the Copyright Law, a new, preliminary legal system of copyright protection has been established. The Administrations for Copyright (ACs) at various levels across the country enhanced the supervision and control of the market and achieved outstanding successes. Comprehensive progress was acquired in the area of copyright.

On August 2, 2002, the State Council promulgated the Implementing Rules of the Copyright Law. The revised Implementing Rules reduced  the amount of its articles from 56 to 38. This revision has two aims, one is to strengthen the maneuverability of the implementation of the revised Copyright Law, the other is to fulfill the promises of Chinese Government to revise the previous implementing rules which was made in the entry negotiations of WTO.

According to the statistics from NCAC, in 2002, the local copyright administrative organs across the country received 6,408 cases, of which 6,107 were closed, the closing rate being 95.3%. Of all the cases, 5,250 related to the fines, 721 for the arbitration and 136 cases were transferred to the judicial organs. The top 5 regions which received and closed the most cases were Hunan, Guangxi, Henan, Jiangsu and Guangdong; 67.90 million pirated products were seized by the local copyright administrative organs across the country, of which 20.02 million were pirated books,  1.35 million were pirated periodicals, 27.07 million were pirated audiovisual products, and 7.33 million were pirated electronic publications, 5.96 million were copies of pirated software, and 6.15 million were other pirated products. The top 5 regions, which seized the most pirated products, were Guangdong, Jiangsu, Beijing, Hainan and Hubei.

On August 6, 2002, NCAC, the National General Administration for News and Publication, the Ministry of Education and the Office of the National Working Group Against Pornographic and Illegal Acts jointly gave order to arrange special actions against the pirated textbooks and assistant teaching materials. According to the estimation from an incomplete statistics, during the special action period, the ACs of each province, autonomous region and municipality, under the guidance of central government, cooperated with other related departments and seized a total of 7.23 million pirated textbooks and assistant teaching materials, 2.70 million pirated test paper, 1.52 million pirated audiovisual products and copies of pirated software. In a word, the special neatening action has achieved a temporary but significant success.

The copyright administrative agencies across the country continued the registration of the contracts and voluntary registrations. Across the country, 11,836 copyright contracts were received for registration, 11,067 were for voluntary registration of the works.

Chinese central government continually provided guidance for copyright trade. According to the statistics submitted by the copyright administrative agencies across the country, in 2002, 10,235 copyrightable publications were imported and 1,317 were exported by all the publishing houses across China, making a large increase over the previous year,. Currently both the importation and the exportation has reached their summits respectively. The top 5 regions for import of the copyrightable publications were Beijing, Shanghai, Liaoning, Tianjin and Hunan.  The top 5 regions for the export of copyrightable publications were Beijing, Shanghai, Liaoning, Hubei and Jiangsu.

From May to July, 2002, the NCAC organized several training programs all over the country for executive personnel of the ACs of various levels. More than 550 executive officers from the ACs of provinces, cities and countries attended trainings of these programs.

In the year, the ACs at various levels initiated several training programs for employees of different professions, such as computer hardware production, software design, and information network maintenance. The ACs at various levels also organized some special training programs for TV stations, publishing houses and periodical presses. Some regions also organized special discussion meetings and training programs, which especially concerned the problems of copyright protection for movies and audiovisual products, for the executive personnel from related governmental departments.

V. The Strengthened Customs Protection for IP

In 2002, in order to meet the requirements of WTO, the Customs offices across China strengthened the border protection for intellectual property. Meanwhile, the customs offices, worked closely with the judicial organs, the authorities in charge of IP protection, and the intellectual property right holders to prevent IP infringement in the course of import and export, to safeguard the legal interest of the intellectual property right holders and to maintain the import and export order.

In the year, the General Administration for Customs received a total of 1,088 customs protection applications for records from the domestic IP right holders, of which 844 were approved upon review, respectively an increase of 35.4% and 30.2% compared with that of last year. A total of 573 cases worth 95.62 million RMB were investigated and prosecuted by the customs offices across China. 557 cases worth 90.57 million RMB related to the counterfeited trademarks, accounting for 97.2% of the total cases. Meanwhile, 569 cases investigated and prosecuted are related to infringing export, accounting for 99.3% of the total cases.

In the year, customs offices kept on taking effective measures to enhance the protection for the famous foreign and domestic brands such as NIKE, ADIDAS, GALAXY, SANHUAN and so on. In June, Ningbo Customs office investigated and seized 372 boxes of sports suits, with a total number of more than 9,000 suits, which were declared to export to Algeria by a corporation in Jinhua City of Zhejiang province, was suspected to have infringed upon the trademark of 'ADIDAS'. In the end of September, Shanghai Customs office found three batches of lock-wares which probably have infringed upon the trademarks of "SANHUAN”, so 1,000 boxes of lock-wares, with a total worth of more than 500,000 were investigated and seized. In December, Xiamen Customs office found 12,600 pairs of shoes and 4,246 pulling-pole bags, which were marked with the mark of "FIFA" and declared to export jointly by a limited export corporation in Fuzhou and a joint-stock company in Xiamen of Fujian province, infringed upon the trademarks of FIFA.

In 2002, the infringed goods, which were investigated and prosecuted by Customs, showed a trend of diversification of IP infringement. Not only previous infringements such as textile, clothes, etc., but also many new infringed goods, such as football, watch, axletree, subminiature cup, telephone without line, joint fork of earphone, firebrick, saw blade, welding rod and so on, have appeared.

In 2002, the scope of trademarks protected by Customs became wider than ever, besides some previously existent brands such as NIKE, ADIDAS, and so on, a great many of new brands appeared. For instance, Qingdao Customs office and Ningbo  Customs office successively investigated and prosecuted export goods which have infringed upon the trademarks of “MEILIN”， "SANHUAN", "BUTTERFLY", "DRAGON AND TIGER", "TOWER" and its graphics, "LUNGKOW" and its graphics, "DOUBLE DRAGONS" and its graphics, "DOUBLE PHOENIX" and its graphics, "DRAGON and PHOENIX" and its graphics, "FRIENDSHIP", "ROOSTER", "YOUTH DANCE", and so on. Xiamen Customs office and Shanghai Customs office also investigated and prosecuted quantities of goods infringing upon the trademarks of "SONY", "NATIONAL", and so on. Tianjin Customs office registered 60 cases to investigate and prosecute, of which, the protected trademarks increased from 21 in 2001 to 33, an increase of 57%. "GOLDEN CUP", "DIAMOND", "FLYING SWALLOW", "MT-12", "T-FB", "SONY", "NACHI", "TOMBO", "FK", "FS", "HCH", "CARMEN", "ARROW-FISH", "FIFA of WORLD CUP" and other new brands appeared.

On April 4, 2002, the State Council issued the Regulations of the Olympic Marks, and requested the Customs to take stringent measures to work against the import and export of Olympic Marks-infringing goods. In 2002, 20 such cases were investigated by Customs. For example, Xiamen Customs office successively investigated and prosecuted 10 cases related to infringements upon Olympic Marks, and therefore detained 30,000 infringing sport clothes, shoes and bags with a total worth of 2 million RMB. On July 25, Xiamen Customs office found 400 jackets marked with "BEIJING 2008 AOYUN" when checking a passel of clothes declared to export by a machinery export company in Xiamen. On September 17, Xiamen Customs office once again found 6,300 pairs of children's shoes marked with "BEIJING 2008 ", when checking sports shoes declared to export by a livestock import and export company from Sichuan Province. Both cases were involved in infringement upon the Olympic Marks.

VI. Comprehensive Progress of Intellectual Property Protection in Audio-visual Market

In 2002, the IP protection in Audio-visual market in China was concentrated on the implementation of the new Management Regulations of Audio-visual Products（the 341st order by the State Council），and comprehensive progress was acquired in the areas of law system establishment, adjustment of market structure, fight against infringement and piracy, elimination of the illegal production, and so on.

In 2002, according to the new Management Regulations of Audio-visual Products, the Ministry of Culture revised the Management Measures of Wholesale, Retail and Rent of Audiovisual Production and the Management Measures of Audiovisual Production Import. On one hand, these laws and regulations enlarged the scope of market admittance and accelerated the development of industry. on the other hand, they established severe means of punishment for the units or individuals engaged in illegal business, and provided legal support for right holders to fight against infringement and piracy.

In 2002, the Ministry of Culture arranged reexamination and re-registration for audio-visual business units across the country, comprehensively cleared the business units that engaged in wholesale, retail, renting or public playing of audiovisual production. Through the reexamination and re-registration, one third of the audio-visual business units in Shanghai were closed. In Zhejiang province, of the total more than 10,000 audio-visual business units, 7,177 passed the reexamination and registered again. In Hubei and Heilongjiang province, the audio-visual business units were reduced respectively from 5,556 to 4,986 and from 3,811 to 2,264. In Sichuan province, 1,000 audio-visual business units were also reduced. The total number of audio-visual business units all over the country decreased from 140,000 to 110,000.

In May and June, 2002, the Ministry of Culture took special actions to reexamine the audio-visual market. During the period of reexamination, more than 20 illegal market places with over 100,000 illegal audio-visual products, which have been investigated and banned already, were found out in Guangdong province , and more than 6 million illegal products were seized. On May 28, 18 distribution spots were banned because of their illegal businesses, and 450,000 pirated discs were seized. From May to June, the departments of culture and public security in Anhui , for the fifth time, jointly seized 1.10 million illegal audio-visual products. From June to July, the cultural departments of Shandong successively solved nine cases of infringement, and seized 670,000 illegal audio-visual products. On July 11, the cultural department of Chengdu, cooperated with public security departments, seized more than 610,000 illegal audio-visual products. In addition, the cultural departments of Hebei, Guangxi, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Xizang province also successively investigated and banned several spots and seized more than 100,000 illegal audiovisual products. Across the country, this reexamination action involved 199,000 person-times for enforcement and examination, checked 117,000 audio business units, and 10,607 sale stalls without certificates were banned, 10,713 administrative sanctions were issued, 3,550 licenses were withdrawn, 252 cases were handed over to departments of public security and justice, and 43.447 million illegal audio-visual products were seized.

On August 13, 2002, the Ministry of Culture designated Nanjing as the main meeting place and arranged a uniform countrywide action to destroy the illegal audio-visual products. The principal director of the Asia-Pacific region of the International Disc Association said: "The world has witnessed the efforts of Chinese mainland to fight against the piracy. Chinese government has taken much sincerity and strength to fight against the piracy. We have full confidence that the Chinese audio-visual market will surely be improved step by step."

Through the persistent effort to clean up the audio-visual market, the level of IP protection for audio-visual products was greatly promoted in China, the infrastructure of audio-visual market was established, the industry scale was enlarged and the audio-visual market became thriver and more prosperous than ever. First, the circulation of the legal audio-visual products rose continually. For example, in Guangdong province, the legal audio-visual products worth more than 607 million were sold in 2000, and in 2001 the amount was over 880 million, an increase of 45% over the previous year. In 2002, the amount reached 1.6 billion, an increase of nearly 100% over 2001. Second, a new change emerged in audio-visual market which in favor of the sale of legal products. The market share of legal audio-visual products was larger than ever, and therefore was able to control the market. Third, a modern distributional system of the audio-visual market was coming into being. Up to now, there are 4,000 audio-visual chain stores all over the country, 8 of which are national chain stores, and more than 60 of which have a business area over 500 sqm. These chain stores, together with other supermarkets and the audio-visual sections in department stores, have become the main distributional channels of audio-visual products.

VII. Significant Achievement by the Public Security

In 2002, public security authorities across the country, in accordance with the Action Project Against Pornographic and Illegal Acts by the Ministry of Publicity, the Politics and Laws Council and the National General Administration for News and Publication as well as the disposition of the Ministry of Public Security, played an important role in fighting against the piracy and protecting intellectual property, and achieved great success. According to statistic data, in 2002, the public security authorities across the country investigated and solved 34,000 cases related to infringement, piracy and pornography, in which 43,000 suspects were captured, more than 140 million pirated and pornographic discs, and 39.89 million pirated and pornographic publications were seized, and 18 assembly lines for illegal manufacture of the discs were founded out and banned.

In 2002, according to the arrangement of the Ministry of Public Security, public security authorities across the country kept on fighting against the production and sale of the pirated and pornographic discs, and  successfully investigated and solved a large number of big and important cases. In December, 2002, the public security authority in Guangdong province, cooperated with other related departments, destroyed a criminal group of production and sale of the pirated discs, investigating and banning 10 storehouses of the pirated discs, capturing more than 40 suspects, seizing 6 million pirated discs, and 4 computers for the cover design of discs, many accounts, indentures and other goods for illegal production. In September, 2002, the public security authority in Tianjin, who has stressed on the examination of the transport and store of discs, investigated 1,082 illegal audio-visual products transported from Guangzhou to Beijing and Tianjin, 600,000 pirated discs including 20,000 pieces of pornographic discs, which could be classified into 96 kinds, were seized. In July, 2002, the public security authority in Zhongshan of Guangdong province investigated a place that engaged in the underground production of illegal discs, capturing 13 suspects, seizing 5 assemblies lines and other instruments such as galvanizer, disc imprinter, sunning machine for print, drying machine for colloid, and so on. In 2002, the public security authorities across the country investigated 18 underground assembly lines for illegal discs. By then, 143 such assembly lines has been investigated and banned.

In 2002, local Public Securities further enhanced the management of the circulation order of the publication market. In July, the public security authority in Yiwu City of Zhejiang province captured a suspect who sold pornographic discs, and seized 2,460 pornographic discs. In October, the public security authority in Kunming of Yunnan province successively investigated and banned two spots in which pirated and pornographic discs were sold, seizing 70,000 pirated discs and 1,700 pornographic discs. In accordance with the disposition of the Ministry of Public Security, local public securities authorities also closely cooperated with other related departments and took special actions to investigate and seize the pirated textbooks, assistant-teaching materials and other harmful books, and achieved remarkable success. In August, 2002, the public security authority in Chengdu of Sichuan province searched three spots that produced and sold pirated textbooks and assistant-teaching materials, seizing 178,000 pirated textbooks and assistant-teaching materials. In September, the public security authority in Jiangsu province, cooperated with the news and publication department, investigated and solved the case of Nanjing Haoyue Color Print Limited Corporation that printed pirated textbooks and assistant teaching materials. it was found that this case involved 17 publishing houses and 106 distributing units in 15 provinces, and this case valued more than 20 million RMB. In 2002, the public security authorities across the country aggregately investigated and sovled 2,374 cases related to the pirated textbooks and assistant teaching materials, and seized 10.24 million pirated textbooks and assistant teaching materials.

In order to regularize the enterprises' business activities, maintain a good market order and ban the enterprises without business licenses or certificates, local public security authorities, cooperated with other related departments, strengthened the intensity of administration and regularized the order of printing market. The public security authority in Shanghai totally inspected 4,848 printing enterprises, banned 146 printing enterprises (stalls) without business licenses or certificates, reduced 277 printing enterprises. 530,000 illegal printed products were seized, 887 cases were investigated and prosecuted, 1,089 suspects were captured. In April, 2002, the public security authority in Zunhua of Heibei province investigated and solved a case of Zunhua Wenyuan Limited Corporation that pirated the movie Harry Potter and the fiction Weicheng, capturing 3 suspects, seizing 8 films and 77 heliotypes which were used for pirating books, and a great number of pirated books.

VIII. Protection for New Plant Varieties Became Standard

In 2002, in order to meet the new requirements of WTO, China's protection system for new plant varieties, aiming at stimulating technology innovation, concentrated on the increase of the gross new plant varieties, which, in turn, enhance the protection for IP greatly.

Through constant efforts, the management system was set up gradually, and awareness for protection of new plant varieties was rooted in people. More and more people, especially the planters, were convinced of the importance of protection for new plant varieties, and took part in the protection for new plant varieties actively. By the end of December 31, 2002, the Ministry of Agriculture had received a total of 744 applications for protection of the new varieties. From 1999 to 2002, the amount of annual application received was 112, 115, 227 and 290 respectively, which showed an ascendant trend. The Ministry of Agriculture had approved 167 new varieties in total by the end of 2002, of which 119 new varieties were approved during 2002. By December 31, 2002, the State Administration for Forestry had received a total of 220 applications for protection of the new varieties, of which 49 were approved. During 2002, the State Administration for Forestry received a total of 17 applications for new varieties, 4 of which were applied for by foreigners, 16 of which were preliminarily examined and published. Through the protection of new varieties, the system of protection for new plant varieties plays a more important role in pushing forward our country's innovation of planting technology, industrialization of science and technology, and perfection of collocation of resources.

The Ministry of Agriculture formulated the Opinions on Stressing the Protection for New Plant Varieties by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Regulations for the Infringement of Agriculture New Plant Varieties.

In July, 2002, the State Administration for Forestry formally established the New Plant Varieties Reexamination Board, which composed of 33 members that were divided into four workgroups (Forest Group, Economic Forest Group, Ornamental Group, Bamboo-bine Group) and one secretariat. The secretariat is a standing organ whose office is domiciled in the Technology Development Center of the State Administration for Forestry.

On January 4, 2002, the Ministry of Agriculture published the fourth list of new plant varieties, which included 7 plants such as: Ipo moea batatas(L.) Lam., Setaria italica(L.) Beauv., Rrunus persica(L.) Batsch., Litchi chinensis Sonn., Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.)Matsum et Nakai, Brassica oleracea L.var. capitata(L.)Alef. var.alba Dc., Raphanus sativus L. var. longipinnatus Bailey & Raphanus sativus L. var.radiculus Pers..

On December 2, 2002, the State Administration for Forestry published the third list of forestry new plant varieties, which included 21 plants such as: Pinus Linn., Picea Dietr., Taxodium Rich., Sabina Mill., Liriodendron Linn., Chaenomeles Lindl., Acacia Willd., Sophora Linn., Robinia Linn., Syringa Linn., Forsythia Vahl, Buxus Linn., Euphorbia Linn., Acer Linn., Hippophae Linn., Ailanthus Desf., Bambusa Retz. corr. Schreber., Indocalamus Nakai, Phyllostachys Sieb. et Zucc., Calamus Linn., Daemonorops Blume.

In 2002, the State Administration for Forestry published one issue of the Public Report of Protection for Forestry New Plant varieties. The table of contents of the public report included policies and regulations, preliminary examination notices, standard application files, the addresses and e-mail of agents and so on.

In 2002, the State Administration for Forestry set up an Internet site named the Office of Protection for New Plant Varieties, both in Chinese and English. The website's address is https:// www.cnpvp.net. This website has drawn a lot of attention and promoted the social impact for the new plant varieties of forestry.  

In November, 2002, the State Administration for Forestry held the fourth training program on the protection for new plant varieties. 95 people from the Scientific School of Forestry of China and other units attended the training program. 75 of which passed the examination and got the certificate of agent qualification for new plant varieties of forestry.

In 2002, in order to promote the development of protection for new plant varieties in Asia areas, the UPOV invited Chinese officials from the Ministry of Agriculture to attend two conferences as experts. One meeting is Technological Seminar on the Protection for New Plant Varieties in Asia, which was held in Korea, and the other is Training Course on the Protection for New Plant Varieties, which was held in Vietnam. In these conferences, Chinese experts introduced to other attendees the protection of the new plant varieties in China, the formulation of guidelines for new plant varieties testing and the technology of testing new plant varieties in China.

In September, 2002, the Ministry of Agriculture of Holland, the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Administration for Forestry of China held the China-Holland Training Course of Protection for New Plant Varieties jointly in Fujian, Guangdong and Yunnan, to which more than 200 peoples attended.

IX.  International Exchange and Activities

2002 was the first year since China's entry into WTO. SIPO play an active part in coordination with other members in the foreign affairs of intellectual property. The international exchange and cooperation in the field of intellectual property became more frequently, extensively and abundantly.

From May 21 to 25, 2002, SIPO together with SAIC and NCAC, cooperated with WIPO, sponsored in Beijing the China-Africa Forum on IP, the Forum on Innovative Power and Invention. During the period of the forums, China and WIPO signed the framework agreement of cooperation.

From September 23 to October 1, the Chinese delegation composed of members from SIPO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Permanent Mission of P.R.China at Geneva), SAIC, NCAC attended the 36th series of meeting of the Assembly of WIPO. Mr. Wang Jingchuan, Chief of the Chinese delegation, in answer to the wishes of WIPO, declared at the meeting that Chinese government had agreed to host the WIPO Summit on Intellectual Property and the Knowledge Economy in Beijing from April 24 to 26 in 2003. The Chinese delegation also delivered a speech on the achievements made by China in the field of intellectual property and on some major issues of the international intellectual property, in which he elaborated the opinions and standpoints of the Chinese government.

SIPO paid close attention to the development in the area of international IP, and actively organized related branches of China to take part in reforming the international IP system. In April, July and November, SIPO thrice attended the meetings of WIPO on the reform of the PCT system and put forward suggestions based on China's conditions; in May and November, SIPO twice attended the meeting of Standing Committee of Patent Law of WIPO and took part in the work of drafting the substantive patent law; in December, SIPO attended a governmental meeting on the protection for genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklores; in April and October, SIPO attended the annual meeting of UPOV. Through these efforts, China's impacts on the international IP affairs were greatly appreciated.

In 2002, the multilateral cooperation among SIPO, WIPO and related regional organizations and countries were further boosted up. SIPO, who play an active part in the multilateral cooperation, together with these organizations and countries, tackled with these international and regional IP problems.

In December, 2002, the Chinese copyright delegation, invited by WIPO Director General Dr. Idiris, visited WIPO, Germany and Finland. Headed by Mr. Shi Zongyuan, the delegation composed of 6 members. Director General of NCAC, and Mr. Shen Rengan, Deputy Director General of NCAC. During the visiting period, the Chinese copyright delegation, WIPO and the copyright administration of Germany and Finland extensively and deeply exchanged opinions on the legislation and management of copyright. And the Chinese delegation also introduced China's achievements in the areas of establishment of protection system for copyright, enhancement of the copyright law's enforcement, accomplishments acquired in news and publication enterprises, and so on.

Form September 21 to October 2, 2002, Mr. Li Dongsheng, Deputy Director General of SAIC, attended the 37th series meeting of WIPO Assembly held in Geneva of Switzerland.

Form July 2 to 3, 2002, Mr. An Qinghu, Director of Trademark Office of SAIC, attended the 16th meeting of the China-France Trademark Mixed-workgroup held in France, and after the meeting, a memorandum was signed.

In 2002, NCAC and the Ministry of Culture of Japan signed the Cooperative Agreement on Copyright and Neighboring Rights, and sponsored the China-Japan Forum on Copyright for the first time in the end of August in Beijing. More than 50 scholars and experts from China and Japan attended this meeting, where the problems of protection for copyright under new conditions of Internet and communication technology were discussed deeply and heatedly.