On March 28, 2025, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) held a press conference to discuss their work goals in light of the recent National People’s Congress and to “implement the spirt of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech” at the Congress.  Heng Fuguang, spokesperson and director of CNIPA stated it will implement that spirit in seven aspects: 1. improve the legal system of intellectual property rights; 2. improve the quality of intellectual property creation; 3. improve the efficiency of intellectual property use;  4. strengthen intellectual property protection; 5. optimize public services for intellectual property rights; 6. expand international cooperation and exchanges on intellectual property; and 7. consolidate the foundation for the development of intellectual property.

Some highlights of the press conference include:

• Accelerate the revision of the Trademark Law (this was also mentioned in the Opinions on Further Improving the Business Environment in the Field of Intellectual Property) and the Regulations on the Protection of Integrated Circuit Layout Designs;
• Accelerate the application of artificial intelligence models in examination work;
• Deepen the implementation of the trademark brand strategy, create more “national fashion brands”, promote the transformation of Made in China to Created in China, and the transformation of Chinese products to Chinese brands;
• We will comprehensively strengthen foreign-related intellectual property protection, improve the overseas intellectual property dispute response guidance system, and effectively safeguard the legitimate interests of Chinese companies overseas;
• Plan the development of the “15th Five-Year Plan” for intellectual property;
• Continue to improve the overseas risk early warning mechanism, strengthen the early warning monitoring of disputes such as 337 investigations, cross-border e-commerce litigation, and malicious trademark registration;
• 345,000 patent pre-examination requests were accepted , and the average authorization period for invention patents authorized after passing the pre-examination was less than 3 months.

A full transcript is available here (Chinese only).