Building an IP powerhouse

Gowling WLG’s Jian Xu provides 10 highlights from China’s plan for building a powerful IP nation

Jian Xu, Gowling WLG

China released The outline of building a powerful intellectual property nation (2021–2035) (hereinafter the outline) on 22 September 2021. It is a continuation of China’s National IP Strategy issued in 2008, and will be the strongest policy documents and guides for the next three five-year plans. While it can be said that the 2008 Strategy is to bring China into an “IP conscious” nation, the 2021 outline is ambitious and aims to transform China into an “IP powerful” nation. This article provides 10 highlights of the outline which affects legal practice and foreign rightsholders.