On December 17th, QBPC Chair Michael Ding attended the Fourth Meeting of the Sixth Board of the China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment (CAEFI). At the Business Environment 2024 Roundtable session, he discussed the achievements of QBPC in 2024along with the difficulties and challenges.
Michael emphasized that the QBPC had consistently adhered to the principle of optimizing China's IP legal environment and vigorously promoted international exchanges and cooperation on IP. The QBPC had assisted member companies—particularly their headquarters—in gaining a better understanding of the status quo of IPR protection in China through providing relevant information and proposing suggestions. In terms of quality brand protection and the protections related to technological innovation, the QBPC had made relentless efforts. He then recalled QBPC work in 2024, including conducting the Annual Top Ten Cases Selection and Promotion activities, actively promoting international exchanges and cooperation, and organizing the Cross-Border IP Protection Forum, the Forum on Criminal IP Protection, and the Dialogue on Administrative Protection of IPR of Foreign Invested Enterprises. Additionally, he highlighted the existing difficulties and challenges in IP protection, including issues arising from the rapid development of e-commerce platforms and social media. He called for further improvement in the consistency and predictability of judicial and law enforcement standards for IP protection. Meanwhile, the protection of trade secrets had to be enhanced, particularly through the transformation of thinking in criminal judicial protection from categorizing trade secret infringement as “consequential offenses” to “behavioral offenses”, which would facilitate more effective protection of technological innovation and investment. Finally, he reminded that AI-related IP issues would also require the attention and discussion of all parties.
