China to adopt system of punitive damages for intellectual property rights infringements

BEIJING (Reuters) – China will introduce a system of punitive damages for intellectual property (IP) infringements in its effort to strengthen protection of such rights, the official Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.

Shen Changyu, head of the State Intellectual Property Office, said China would hasten formation of an IP rights protection system for trademarks, patents and geographical indications and work with agencies overseas.

“We are introducing a punitive damages system for intellectual property rights infringement to ensure offenders pay a big price,” Xinhua quoted Shen as saying in an interview.

Some of China’s key trading partners have complained the world’s second-largest economy has not done enough to protect intellectual property rights of foreign companies.

The United States has threatened China with tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods, in a bid to force Beijing to tackle what Washington calls theft of U.S. intellectual property and forced technology transfers from U.S. companies.

Beijing has denied these accusations.

While China is strengthening IP rights protection for foreign companies it opposes trade protectionism in the guise of IP rights protection, Shen said.

He also urged foreign governments to boost protection of Chinese IP rights, Xinhua added.

Separately, state radio said Beijing would step up IP rights for pharmaceuticals.

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.