The State Council Solicits opinions for the Regulations on the Customs Protection of IPRs

Tsolmon Shar

The Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council issued the “Decisions of the State Council on Revising the ‘Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Intellectual Property Rights Protection by Customs’ (Draft for Approval)”, inviting public to give comments and suggestions by 25 December 2009. The Public provided their comments in three ways: first, the Chinese government the Rule of Law Login Information Network (Web site: http://www.chinalaw.gov. cn); second, through correspondence; third, through e-mail.
Available at: (Chinese version) http://www.chinalaw.gov.cn/article/cazjgg/200912/20091200144478.shtml

The draft made 6 important revisions upon the original Regulations on the Customs Protection of Intellectual Property Rights, i.e. the alteration and cancellation of IPR records, counter guarantee, the retrieval of protection application made by the IPR holders and the legal responsibility due to import and export of infringing goods. With respect to auctioning off infringing goods, the draft amended Regulations and proposed to introduce one of the two possible sub-article governing destruction of infringing goods rather than auctioning them off: (1) except for certain circumstances, just removing the illegal trademarks on the infringing goods or counterfeit goods is insufficient to allow such goods to be sold in business activities; or (2) except for certain circumstances, not just removing the infringing trademarks on the infringing goods or counterfeit goods will prevent them from being sold in business activities. Considering the serious situation that the offenders export infringed goods by mailing, the draft amended the 28th article in the original regulations to "the import and export goods brought by individuals or mailed by express will be regarded as infringement goods if the goods exceed self use and reasonable quantity and infringe IP rights regulated in the second article of the draft regulations".

Mr. Edward Lehman, managing director of Lehman, Lee & Xu Law Firm commented that: “this decision of the State Council is one of the significant results of the 2009 IPR Protection Action Plan.” And He further mentioned: “to solicit the public opinions on Regulations, which will enable legal professionals and law firms to provide inputs to the law and provide better quality legal services to our IP clients“。


Lehman, Lee & Xu Law Firm, is one of top practices of IPR in China maintaining offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, assists its clients in registration and enforcement of patents, trademarks and copyrights in China and around the world, via an efficient global network.


To learn more about the Lehman, Lee & Xu, please visit to website: www.lehmanlaw.com
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