At the advent of the Year of the Horse, on behalf of the China IP magazine, I wish our readers a Happy New Year: May you have good health, every success and remarkable progress in the IP cause! The New Year 2014 comes with a lot of speculations and expectations: the fight against corruption, the Sino-Japanese relation, food safety, environmental protection, health care reform, etc. All of these issues touch people’s nerves. For the IP industry, 2014 will bring more opportunities and greater development to the IP cause.
The opportunities call for real-time concern. The following aspects need special attention: The implementation of the new Trademark Law and the fourth revision of Patent Law. Modification of relevant laws has always been the top concern of IP industry: in what aspect would the new Trademark Law to be effective on May 1st 2014, and the new Patent Law to be revised affect relevant industries? What business opportunities will be generated? The answers will only come after the actual implementation of the laws.
Anti-monopoly cases. Last year, “monopoly,” which was rarely mentioned in the country, suddenly became popular. The policy-oriented monopoly by state-owned enterprises has been criticized repeatedly; and the industry monopoly achieved by competition under the market economy, such as the feud between 360 and QQ, also drew wide social attention. After many rounds of battles, the 3Q war will come to a conclusion in 2014. What kind of impact will the final judgment bring to the development of China’s private enterprises? It is also worthy of attention.
Growth of IP professional management and consulting industry. The high cost of litigation, length of proceedings and risks of losing make the majority of Chinese enterprises realize the significance of IP protection before litigation. Pre-trial protection requires small input but can achieve remarkable effects. The huge market demand leads to the emerging of a new industry segment — IP management and consulting service. The industry pioneers must face the survival problems and think it over how to provide consulting services for IP management and operation and how to realize labor division and cooperation with the traditional industries.
“April 26th” IP Publicity Week. April 26th has become a festival for the IP community. The industry, especially the administrative departments need to consider how to complete the mission of “April 26th” more frugally and efficiently. For IP practitioners, it is also an innovative task to take advantage of this opportunity to improve and perfect their own business.
In addition, the long—planned reform of IP trial system, devastating international IP disputes, bottleneck in IP transformation, as well as the most fundamental personnel training issues are all expecting breakthroughs in the new year.
We expect a lot in 2014. We hope there would be more beyond our expectations
