On September 7, 2020, China responded to the EU Article 63 request. The one-page Chinese response repeats the position taken by China in 2006, that Article 63 only affords an opportunity for a member to make a transparency request of another member. As China notes in its response, “there is no such obligation under the TRIPS Agreement for China to respond.” This position repeats the position taken by China that “the TRIPS Agreement only refers to a Member’s right to request information, but there is no mention of a corresponding obligation of the requested Member to actually follow the request.” (Para. 8, P/C/W/465, Jan. 23, 2006). As this prior Article 63 response appears to be the template for some elements of the current response, I have inserted it below. The Chinese responses might be understood as rejecting a teleological interpretation of the TRIPS Agreement to effectuate its purposes, or one based on the good faith of the parties, as it is difficult to conceive of the reason for a treaty provision that offers an opportunity to make an inquiry of another country, but does not require that country to respond. The response also ignores the significant developments in case law in China in recent years.
Essentially Derived Varieties and The Role of Leading Cases in Chinese Plant Variety Protection

Editor’s Note: Plant Variety Protection (PVP) is a little-discussed topic in China’s IP regime. Indeed, this blog has only reported on PVP-specific issues once before, and once in the context of the […]
New CPC and State Council Opinions on Improving IP Protection
On November 24, 2019, the General Office of Communist Party of China and the State Council jointly released the Opinions Concerning Enhancing Intellectual Property Rights Protection (关于强化知识产权保护的意见). It is often too easy […]
The Widening Impact of China’s Publication of IP Cases
I recently had the opportunity at the Fordham IP Conference to discuss the potential impact of the continuing publication of court decisions by China’s courts since 2014, including their wide-ranging impact on […]
More on Guiding Cases, Precedents and Databases…
Judge Liu Yijun from Beijing IP Court spoke on the application of China’s IP Case Guidance System in Beijing IP Court. As we have previously reported, one of the latest development in […]
Spring Time for IPR Case Law in China?

Recently, there have been two important developments involving IP-related guiding cases and precedent that shed light on these different approaches of the Supreme People’s Court, which is in charge of guiding cases, […]
2017 Opens with More Positive Trademark Developments
The SAIC has announced that it has amended its TM review and examination standards (“Trademark Review and Examination Standards”). The revised standards, with a date of December 2016, are available here. The […]
Book Review on Report on Development of Intellectual Property Development in China (2015)
The Report on Development of Intellectual Property Development in China 2015 中国知识产权发展报告 (IP Teaching and Research Center of Renmin University of China / IP Academy of Renmin University) (Tsinghua University Press, 2016) […]
Counterfeits in Microchannel Marketing … and Case Law
Amidst the escalating focus on online counterfeiting, piracy and patent infringement, online social media, such as WeChat are also becoming a source of infringing products, as documented in a Wall Street Journal […]
Justice Tao Kaiyuan and the Role of the Judiciary

Justice Tao Kaiyuan of the Supreme People’s Court, who had been to the United States in 2015 delivering important speeches on rule of law, has recently published an article on “Giving Full […]