Chinese premier highlights intellectual property for innovation-driven development

Chinese Premier Li Qiang said China will deeply implement the strategy of building China into a leading country in intellectual property to bolster innovation-driven development.

The premier made the remarks during a themed study session of the State Council on Tuesday as he presided over the session.

Li said that the implementation of the strategy bears great significance for strengthening the nation's core competitiveness and advancing its high-level opening-up.

To support comprehensive innovation, efforts must go toward accelerating the establishment of legal, management and policy systems and creating rules compatible with new technologies to lay a solid foundation for opening up new tracks in industrial development, Li said.

Efforts should also be made to accelerate the application of intellectual property rights (IPR) by sticking to market-oriented methods, Li said, stressing implementing specific actions on the utilization of patents, and promoting the development of IPR-intensive industries.

He also called for optimizing the business environment and making efforts to improve work mechanisms in review and authorization, law enforcement, judicial protection, arbitration and mediation, and industry self-discipline to enhance IPR's whole-chain protection, and fully implementing punitive damages for intellectual property infringement.

Cross-departmental and cross-regional law enforcement collaboration and response mechanisms should be strengthened to improve professionalism in IPR protection, Li said.

Li added that new technologies and new methods, such as big data and artificial intelligence, should be used to establish a nationally integrated digital public service platform for intellectual property.

Meanwhile, efforts should go toward actively promoting international exchanges and cooperation in intellectual property and properly handling international IPR-related disputes, Li said.