He Zhimin, member of the National Committee of the Political Consultative Conference and Deputy Director of the National Intellectual Property Administration, submitted several proposals at the National Congress and the Political Consultative Conference this year, calling for the acceleration of the improvement of China’s intellectual property legal system.

As the 20th National Congress proposed to strengthen the rule of law protection of intellectual property rights and form a basic system that supports comprehensive innovation, China has established a legal system for intellectual property rights that is consistent with international practices, and has gone through a development process that has taken Western countries hundreds of years to achieve, marking unprecedented achievements. 

He believes that in order to meet the needs of high-quality development, the intellectual property system shall abide by a more comprehensive legal framework. In particular, the legislative research progress should be accelerated, and a basic intellectual property law with Chinese characteristics shall be formed as soon as possible. 

In view of the improvement of specialized laws in the field of intellectual property rights, He introduced that the National Intellectual Property Administration has formed a comprehensive draft of the revision of the Trademark Law in recent years and completed public solicitation of opinions, which has been widely recognized by relevant departments, industries and legal experts. In terms of geographical indication legislation, the National Intellectual Property Administration has conducted in-depth research and demonstration to help draft the Geographical Indication Regulations, which will soon be solicited for public opinions. 

Data property rights are a crucial engine for high-quality development of the digital economy, a powerful guarantee for implementing innovation-driven development, and a key factor in stimulating sustained innovation in the digital economy. However, the law has not made clear provisions over the data property rights, and the lack of a relevant system has become a major constraint on the cultivation of the data factor market. He proposed that the boundary of data intellectual property ownership should be clarified as soon as possible, and the scope of protection of the object, the authorization and confirmation procedures should be clarified, so as to establish data intellectual property protection rules that meet the needs of the development of the digital economy. 

He also suggested that in terms of management, an empowering data registration and publicity system should be established to reduce the cost of rights confirmation, use, and protection for all parties, and promote the development of the data factor market.