The development of intellectual property in China over the past 30 years is as impressive as the country's economic growth, according to an IP expert.

Renata Righetti Pelosi, president of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property, gave the comment in a recent interview with China Intellectual Property News.

China is now transforming into a technology-based economy. It has also been establishing global scientific and innovation centers in many cities. As more Chinese companies innovate at more profitable levels, they start to value IP protection at home and abroad.

Patent applications filed with China's IP administration grew 11.6 percent year-on-year to reach 1.54 million in 2018, accounting for almost half of the global total, according to the annual World Intellectual Property Indicators report released by the World Intellectual Property Organization.

China has also taken measures to strengthen IP protection.
At the end of 2014, three IP courts were set up in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, exploring an IP adjudication system with Chinese characteristics.

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, in 2018 alone, Chinese courts received 301,278 new IP cases, of which 287,795 were concluded. These figures represent an increase of 41 percent and 42 percent, respectively, compared to those for 2017.

As far as international IP cases are concerned, China has one of the shortest adjudication periods in the world.

In 2019, the country enacted the new amendments to Chinese Trade Law, suggesting to establish a system of punitive damages for willful infringement.

"China is strongly committed to the introduction of new and increasingly stringent rules. On this front, therefore, it is reasonable to expect that any shortcoming, if any, will be resolved in a not too distant future," Pelosi said.