8. Intellectual property rights protection

While China puts a greater focus on emerging sectors such as the development of new varieties of plants and chip designs, the country highlighted intellectual property rights protection in fields when it published a guideline on IPR protection on Nov 24 that pledged harsher penalties for IPR violations.

The guideline also called for efforts to explore the establishment of a system to deal with the relationship between the market approval of a generic drug and the patent status of its branded equivalent, and a drug developer's right to a patent extension based upon regulatory review.

Stronger IPR protection will be enforced on the broadcasting of sports events. The formulation of IPR protection rules for cross-border e-commerce will be accelerated, along with management standards for e-commerce platforms.