Three IP-related laws and policies have been released for public comment in the past week, at two different stages in the legislative process.

The first and perhaps most significant is the revisions to the Law Against Unfair Competition (AUCL), now at its second reading in the National People’s Congress.  The announcement is found here, and this is a Weixin posting from Lexis of the actual changes, while the full explanation is on the NPC website.  As translations or comments become available, please send them to me for posting.

The AUCL is an important law for a variety of IP-related areas, including trade secret protection, but also trade dress. Comments are due by September 24. The draft adds statutory damages to the list of remedies for violation of the law, but at the same time removes a provision from the earlier draft clarifying that employees  are subjects of the law, notwithstanding that the focus of the law is on undertakings (经营者).  However, the NPC reports that at the same time it clarifies the circumstances where an enterprise benefits from misappropriated information.  “删除修订草案第十条的规定；同时，在第九条中进一步明确：第三人明知或者应知商业秘密是权利人的员工、前员工或者其他单位、个人通过非法手段取得，仍获取、披露、使用或者允许他人使用的，视为侵犯商业秘密。(修订草案二次审议稿第九条第二款) .  Here is a link to information regarding the earlier public draft.

The second important law is the Standardization Law, also in its second reading at the NPC.  The announcement is found here, and the text is found here.  Comments are also due by September 24.   One potentially problematic provision involves providing support for standardization to indigenous innovated technologies for important national industries, strategic and emerging industries, and key public interest technologies.( 增加一条规定：国家支持在重要行业、战略性新兴产业、关键共性技术等领域利用自主创新技术制定团体标准、企业标准.)

Finally, the China Food and Drug Administration has released its proposed draft “Orange Book” (《中国上市药品目录集》（征求意见稿） which may implement a patent linkage scheme (see excerpt above which requires reporting of relevant patents and regulatory data).   A proposed linkage system was announced by CFDA on May 12, 2017 in Notice 55, about which I previously blogged.  The draft is available through this  link.  Comments are due by September 15.