Tall as an NBA player, handsome as an actor, and professional as an expert - he is an old acquaintance from IP practitioners in China. Having a face to face interview is much more exciting and unforgettable than watching Mariah Carey’s concert.

“Revolutionary change” - 32 years of China’s IP development

From 1981 to 2013, Mr. Tian spent 32 years working on IP, he has witnessed the development of the whole industry. Without a doubt he is the exact person who can elaborate China’s IP development over the last 30 years.

“I P has gone through ‘revolutionary change’ in China. China’s I P system was first established in the 1980s. The public knew little about it and enterprises started to learning IP gradually. As a consequence China’s IP cause developed relatively slow at its initial stage. China’s accession to the WTO can be seen as a turning point. People gradually understood that aside from other factors, IP was also of great significance for enterprises to compete in the market around the world. IP had developed for over 20 years before the accession; yet it was not until in the real battle did Chinese enterprises learn the importance of IP. Many Chinese enterprises were in an inferior position or even experienced great loss during competitions because of neglect of IP. Moreover, China’s economy is gaining its momentum since the reform and opening up. The State Council of China is pursuing innovation-driven development and striving to make China an innovative country. The old development patterns such as extensive consumption of resources and energy as well as cheap labor contribution need to be changed. Therefore innovation is bound to come. Innovation cannot only create new products but also generate IP. Compared with the material production, knowledge has been placed in a very high position. The OEM business mode which was often applied by Chinese enterprises, only provide factory, labor and produce pollution. Therefore, the traditional unsustainable economic development mode needs to be transformed, and knowledge and innovation should be made as the driving forces.

‘Revolutionary Change’ is not only reflected in the real life but also embodied in people’s mind. The entire Chinese nation has little awareness of IP for a long history despite its thousands years of profound cultural heritage. But the situation is changing, people gradually form a kind of thought that we should show respect to other’s IPR while protect one’s own. This is a revolution which is still in progress, the consciousness of culture including innovation culture and IP culture are being formed. The Chinese nation’s dream will come true once we complete the transformation in 20 or 30 years.

“The most active reformation” - perfection of IP laws

IP laws amendments are smoothly progressed in recent years. The implementation of the new Trademark Law in 2013 and the ongoing amendments of the Copyright Law and Patent Law are the results of our active efforts. The continuous perfection of laws and regulations profoundly improve China's IP environment.

“The recent law amendments have great significance: they provide legal guarantee for innovation and social development, enhance law implementation and protection, offer more convenient services, and bring China’s IP more in line with international practice. We have made great progress on law amendments to some extent. There is, however, still room for improvement. For example, codification of IP laws. Scholars are now discussing the possibility of compiling a codification of IP laws in China. Since IP around the world has a lot in common, only relying on laws is far from enough, when discrepancies or conflicts occur, a higher-level harmonization is needed to coordinate the public opinions and interests. From a global perspective, IP serves the innovation which changes constantly. Therefore IP law amendments are the most active reformation and should keep pace with the times.

“Milestone of judicial protection” - the future IP court

The Decision on Major Issue Concerning Comprehensively Deepening Reforms issued on the third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in November 2013 claimed to enhance IP application and protection, perfect technology innovation incentive system and explore to establish IP courts. IP practitioners call for IP courts for many years, this can be a very exciting news for them.

“The goals set in the third Plenary Session are in line with international trends in the first place but more importantly conform to China’s national conditions. There are two trends in regard to jurisdiction in the world, one trend is to use common courts to solve disputes instead of specialized courts. However, IP is an exception, countries around the world incline to set up specialized IP courts to deal with IP disputes. The other trend is IP courts need to be centralized, especially for the higher courts. Up to now, China is catching up with the world pace in innovation and IP application, but more needs to be done on IP protection. One of the problems is the highly decentralized IP jurisdiction resource. There are dozens of courts at higher level, hundreds of courts at intermediate level and plenty of grass root courts that can deal with IP cases, but a centralized court is needed to deliver final judgment. Since IP jurisdiction requires strong expertise, different decisions on similar cases will compromise the judicial impartiality and public confidence. Therefore exploration to establish specialized IP courts counts for much of the IP legal construction in the future and can be considered as a milestone.

We need to learn from other countries’ experience and at the same time to take China’s condition into account to achieve the goal. Factors such as different trial stages, right granting, confirmation and safeguarding, judicial administration and supervision are all needed to be considered. Right now, both the Trademark Appeal Board of State Administration for Industry & Commerce of China and the Patent Reexamination Board of SIPO have quasi-judicial function, they may be influenced once the specialized IP courts are established. The practical approach is to set up several IP courts at intermediate level in charge of right safeguarding, one of which can also deal with first instance case on right granting and confirmation. Meanwhile an IP higher court should also be established to deal with all the appeal cases brought by the intermediate courts; and finally establish an IP supreme court to give judicial explanation, guidance and supervision. The U.S., EU, Japan and Korea all follow this approach which may also applicable to China. I don’t agree with the prediction held by some foreign media that China’s IP courts will not be set up until 2020. Though we have no timetable yet, we have achieved consensus at the central government and I believe that after thorough design and extensive research the proposed courts construction will be advanced rapidly and amaze the world then.

Facts refute “prejudice” - 2.0 era of China’s IP cause

We often encounter negative reports on China’s IP environment in the mainstream media of western countries. They are reluctant to accept the fact that China has achieved remarkable progress in IP and improved the IP environment greatly. However, facts can refute prejudice and China’s IP cause can claim the beginning of its 2.0 era.

“Western’s mainstream media always hold inveterate prejudice toward China’s IP: they think the IP environment of China is inferior, and IP protection as well as law implementation are weak. However the fact is that China, as the second largest destination of overseas patent application filing, receives over hundreds of thousands of foreign patent and trademark applications. Because of the sluggish economy of the world, enterprises that would like to have their patents deployed worldwide once they have innovation but with limited budget, they take China as their second choice just after the U.S. It shows that these enterprises have faith in China’s IP environment and also reflects the great success of the system. There is a tendency that the western media begin to turn their swords to China’s patent and trademark application amount, they claim too many patents and trademarks bring confusions to their investment. Due to the rapid development of China’s independent IP, the competitiveness of Chinese enterprises is upgraded, they directly involving in the market competition, break the old pattern and become competitor to the international giant s . We should keep t h i s momentum and insist innovation as the driving force, and fight until we achieve our goals.

Keep making the world hear China’s IP voice

Mr. Tian always has a busy schedule: meeting with representatives from other countries’ IP offices while paying visits to them to strengthen communication and cooperation, delivering speeches on international and domestic conferences, listening to amendment opinions in law amendment meetings, talking with examiners to learn about their work, and of course giving interviews to let the world hear China’s IP voice. He actively devotes himself to the IP cause.

“As the chief leader of one country’s IP administrative office, especially a country like China whose IP is in rapid progress, it is natural for him to face with great pressure. So keeping a positive attitude is crucial. Whether one is a leader or a member in the team, he has to keep good relationship with others, think more about others’ merits and one’s own shortcomings. Learn more from countries whose IP outperforms China. China has close cooperation with 50 to 60 countries on IP. They know well of China’s IP development. The world was shocked after WIPO released that China overtook the U.S. as the world largest receiver of patent applications. It certainly raises doubts. In face of doubts, Chinese practitioners should possess international views and open learning attitude to achieve the goals and await for the possibly coming changes based on China’s current condition. Though in face of many challenges, I try to achieve work-life balance by doing exercise and listening to music in spare time.

After 32 years of hard work, he can finally have a break; however he will keep working to promote IP development, just as he said at a conference held by SIPO on the eve of his retirement.