Trademark Law amendment adopted at concluding NPC session

English>>China Politics

Editor's Pick

Trademark Law amendment adopted at concluding NPC session

(Xinhua) 19:58, August 30, 2013

Email|Print|Comments

twitter

facebook

Sina Microblog

BEIJING, Aug. 30 -- China's top legislature concluded a bimonthly session on Friday, adopting an amendment to the Trademark Law and a decision that allows law implementation modification in a pilot free trade zone.

Members of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature, voted to pass the amendment to the Trademark Law that aims to ensure a fair market for trademark holders.

The amendment was endorsed and publicized by presidential orders signed by President Xi Jinping.

The amendment, which raised the compensation ceiling for trademark infringement to 3 million yuan (about 500,000 U.S. dollars), six times the previous limit, also includes clauses that will effectively prevent malicious registration of trademarks.

Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, who presided over Friday's meeting, said the revised Trademark Law will strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of industrial and commercial enterprises as well as consumers.

He also believes it will help implement China's intellectual property strategies and promote the healthy development of China's socialist market economy.

A focus of attention during the five-day legislative session has been the deliberation and adoption of a decision that authorizes the State Council, China's cabinet, to modify law implementation in a pilot free trade zone in Shanghai.

As authorized by the NPC Standing Committee, the State Council will suspend administrative approvals regulated by three laws, covering foreign-capital enterprises, Chinese-foreign equity joint ventures and Chinese-foreign contractual joint ventures.

The decision, which will be effective from Oct. 1, is aimed at stepping up the transformation of governmental functions, innovating with China's mode of opening up, and searching for experience to deepen China's reform and opening up, according to Zhang.

Three reports of the State Council were also tabled for deliberation during the legislative session. They covered the implementation of China's economic and social development plan, budget implementation and the prevention and control of infectious diseases.