(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-04-18 07:31

To make innovation a key source of sustainable growth, China has attached ever more importance to protection of intellectual property rights (IPR).

However, after putting in place most of the needed laws and regulations to check IPR infringement, it is time to implement them aggressively. Such efforts are crucial to not only safeguarding market order but also to boosting domestic enthusiasm for innovation.

In a bid to create a fair market and investment environment, China's supreme court has issued more than 20 judicial interpretations related to IPR protection since 2001, when China joined the WTO. It also ordered the establishment of special courts for IPR cases and lowered the threshold needed to prosecute people manufacturing or selling counterfeit products.

Last week, the State Council approved the guidelines on the national strategy on IPR. It is believed that the strategy will further raise awareness of intellectual property issues among the public.

All these efforts have demonstrated the Chinese authorities' resolution to enhance protection of IPR. Official data show Chinese courts dealt with 2,962 IPR infringement cases in the past five years, 133 percent more than during the previous five years.

Clearly, China has made considerable progress on cracking down on infringements of IPR to defend the owners' legal rights. Though such enforcement of the law can be further improved, the Chinese government deserves the credit that many foreign companies give it on its enhanced IPR protection, especially in view of the short history of this cause in the country.

Yet much more should be done in the country's IPR protection to promote the development of economy and science.

According to statistics released earlier by the State Intellectual Property Office, China had registered a total of 850,043 valid patents by the end of 2007, 16.9 percent up on the total at the end of 2006.

The recent hike in patent applications is welcome. Yet, it is not enough to give domestic enterprises adequate incentives for ingenious innovations.

The National Bureau of Statistics pointed out last month that less than 10 percent large industrial companies in China applied for patents between 2004 and 2006 and only about a quarter of them have registered their trademarks.

Such a shocking fact shows that most Chinese enterprises have failed to grasp the vital importance of IPR for competitiveness at home and abroad. More efforts are needed to encourage them to create intellectual property and make good use of it.

(China Daily 04/18/2008 page8)