China's efforts in IP protection can stand scrutiny, according to IP experts in a recent interview with China Intellectual Property News.

Thanks to the rising awareness of Intellectual Property Protection, patent filing in China continues to grow at a great speed.

According to the Annual World Intellectual Property Indicators Report, patent filing at 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. Most of the growth in China is headed by tech giants such as Huawei, Lenovo, Oppo, BOE Technology, Tencent, and ZTE.

High patenting activity in China is not limited to the industry, but widely exercised also by many universities and Chinese research institutions.

"Among the top 500 patent applicants in the world for artificial intelligence (AI) related inventions are 167 universities, of which 110 are from China and in the ranks from 1 to 10 are all Chinese," according to Joseph Straus, professor of law at the University of Munich. "The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is number 17 in the world in filing AI-related patent applications."

China has also strengthened IP protection by reforming judicial infrastructure.

Since 2014, China established an increasing number of specialized IP courts all over the country – with the establishment of the IP Court of the Supreme People's Court in 2019 as a climax.

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.

"To process a large number of patents, utility patents and trademarks annually being filed in China is no easy task. The government of China has done an excellent job to ensure that the rapid growth in the IP system takes place at all levels," said Bastiaan Koster, former President of the Bureau of Federation of International IP Attorneys.

In 2019, China enacted the new amendments to Chinese Trade Law, introducing a system of punitive damages for willful infringement. China has largely increased the maximum amount of statutory damages.

"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," according to Renata Righetti Pelosi, president of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property

"Once the decision in favor of punitive damages will be taken, it will be a result not only, if at all, of criticism from abroad, but also, maybe even predominantly, a sign to create positive change in China's IP system to stimulate and protect genuine Chinese innovation," said Straus.

A Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Friday at a news briefing that China has become a veritable intellectual property power, playing an important role in the world's innovation landscape. He added that China has also been continuously strengthening its scientific and technological innovation and intellectual property protection.