The tasks of Tian

This is going to be a big year for IP in China. The government set the scene in 2008 by publishing a National IP Strategy in June that aims to make the country one of the world's most innovative by 2020 and then passing amendments to the PRC Patent Law (中华人民共和国专利法) in December that are designed to encourage domestic innovation. Now Tian Lipu, commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) must deliver on the promise to turn “made in China” into “invented in China”.

    The challenge is great. While China's patent system has developed at incredible speed during the past 30 years, IP awareness among businesses is still low. A dramatic rise in filings hides the fact that few Chinese patents are included in lucrative patent pools and standards. That increase in filings has given SIPO many of the problems that are faced by the world's biggest patent offices: ensuring examinations are carried out quickly and to a high standard while dealing with the ever-increasing amount of prior art in different languages.

    SIPO also faces its own domestic challenges. Foreign companies complain that some businesses are abusing the system of unexamined utility model patents to file applications with little or no inventive step and are then enforcing these so-called junk patents in court. Finally, SIPO, as China's main IP organisation (trade marks and copyright are dealt with by separate offices) now needs to establish how it will use its increasing clout on the international stage and what role it will play in issues where patents and politics meet, such as genetic resources, traditional knowledge and access to medicines.