According to a press release of the National IP Strategy office of today (Aug. 15, 2012), the fifth draft of the IP Abuse Guidelines of SAIC has now been completed, with significant changes from the prior drafts. This Chinese language article notes that due to an absence of cases in this area in China to date, there has been insufficient understanding of IP abuse and it may not be ripe to release these guidelines.  However, this year’s meeting of the Experts Organization of the State Council Antimonopoly Committee viewed the guidelines as necessary.

The article notes that AIC had conducted a 10 province and city survey in 2010 in which it determined that enterprises had encountered IP abuse but they had not found there was no path to resolution to them. It also quotes an AIC Director (Zhao Guolin) that the draft guidelines will be important for “rights holders, especially as a guideline for international competition and the protection of enterprises’ rights.”

Earlier drafts of this text had been circulating in the academic and business communities over the years, and it is hoped that a robust opportunity for public comment will be afforded, including providing such an opportunity to foreign business people.  Some of the prior drafts were discussed in the book Antimonopoly Law and Practice in China (Oxford 2011).