China announced its boldest plan in 30 years to overhaul a multitude of economic and social policies, with the release of “The Decision on Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening Reforms” on November 15, 2013.
Within this 21,000-word economic roadmap, one announcement caught my attention:
“We will strengthen the utilization and protection of intellectual property rights, improve mechanisms for encouraging technological innovation, and explore ways to establish an intellectual property court.”
Although a general deadline of 2020 is set by the Chinese government for achieving “decisive results” of the sweeping changes laid out in this comprehensive economic roadmap, it is believed that the establishment of the intellectual property court will occur well before that. The introduction of such specialized court, which could be similar to the Federal Circuit in the US, is expected to significantly improve the enforcement of intellectual property rights in China.