1999165438+1October 15 The Chinese and American governments signed a bilateral agreement on China's accession to the World Trade Organization, which indicates that the pace of China's accession to the WTO is accelerating. It can be said that China has come to the door of the World Trade Organization after more than ten years of arduous and long journey.
After joining the WTO, China will fully fulfill its rights and obligations in the field of intellectual property, which will have a far-reaching impact on the development of intellectual property work in China. Within the jurisdiction of the World Trade Organization agreement, the agreement on trade-related intellectual property rights, together with trade in goods and services, constitutes one of the main contents binding all contracting parties. According to the requirements of the agreement, we must improve the relevant intellectual property laws. China's patent law has been revised in 1992, and the scope and level of protection have basically met the requirements of the agreement.
When there is an intellectual property dispute between China and other contracting parties, we have the right and obligation to apply the unified dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO. On the one hand, this dispute settlement mechanism helps to reduce or to some extent curb the unscrupulous unilateral retaliation used by a few developed countries in the past, so that when we may have an intellectual property dispute with developed countries, we can resolve the dispute through multilateral negotiations within the framework of the agreement; On the other hand, it also puts forward higher requirements for intellectual property protection in China. If we can't effectively protect the legitimate rights of the intellectual property rights holders, we may be terminated with preferential treatment, until we are retaliated by cross-disciplinary and cross-departmental retaliation. Strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights, especially effectively combating and punishing counterfeiting and piracy, has become an obligation that China must fulfill after its accession to the WTO, which is of course an inevitable requirement for China to establish and improve its socialist market economic system.
The main task we are facing is to quickly improve the ability and level of state-owned enterprises and institutions to master and use intellectual property rights to meet the requirements of the international intellectual property protection situation after China's accession to the WTO. After joining the World Trade Organization, we should fully fulfill our obligations, especially in the case of reducing tariffs and opening up the domestic market in accordance with the requirements of the WTO. If our enterprises want to survive and develop, they must work hard on technological progress and innovation. Technological innovation and progress, under the condition of market economy, must rely more on and use the intellectual property system to stimulate and protect. If our enterprises can better master and use intellectual property rights to participate in market competition, they can win more initiative. However, compared with developed countries, there is still a considerable gap in the level of intellectual property protection in China, especially the level of patent protection, and a large number of patents in enterprises and institutions are still blank. Tens of thousands of large enterprises in China can't catch up with a Japanese and American company in a year, and the number of patents applied abroad is even less. According to statistics, China has only applied for more than 2,000 patents abroad for more than ten years, while Japanese companies such as Sony and Hitachi have applied for 4,000 and 5,000 patents abroad a year, which is a big gap.
GATT, the predecessor of WTO, is the only multilateral document to manage trade so far, which is known as "traffic rules" and has become the basis for solving international trade disputes. GATT 1948 1 came into effect on 10, and the Uruguay Round negotiations, which began in the 1980s, put intellectual property issues on the agenda. 1986 15 in September, the ministerial meeting of the contracting parties of GATT was held in Punta del Este, Uruguay, and 108 countries and regions participated in the negotiations successively. At the meeting, there was a heated debate on whether to include intellectual property issues in the Uruguay Round negotiations. It was not until the day before the closing of the meeting that, on the basis of a package of compromises, all parties reluctantly agreed to include intellectual property negotiations in the declaration of the ministerial meeting and in the Uruguay Round negotiations. After more than five years of Uruguay Round negotiations on trade-related intellectual property rights, the Draft Agreement on Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights (including trade in counterfeit goods) was finally reached at199118. The agreement consists of seven parts, including general principles and basic principles, 72 articles on the effectiveness, scope and use standards of intellectual property rights, the implementation of intellectual property rights, the acquisition and maintenance of intellectual property rights and related procedures, the prevention and settlement of disputes, the arrangement of transition period, and the organization. The content of the agreement covers all fields of intellectual property rights, which not only exceeds the provisions of international treaties on intellectual property protection at that time in many aspects, but also introduces the basic principles and some specific provisions of GATT on trade in tangible goods into the field of intellectual property rights, and strengthens the enforcement measures and dispute settlement mechanism. At the same time, it also specifies in detail the implementation procedures of legal protection of intellectual property rights, including administrative, civil and criminal procedures. It also stipulates that in the future, the domestic laws of all contracting parties should be close to the agreement. If any contracting party fails to provide effective protection for foreign intellectual property rights in accordance with the agreement, the injured party may cross-retaliate against the infringer according to the rules of cross-retaliation in GATT dispute settlement procedure.
Intellectual property, as an intangible property right, is the right that intellectual workers enjoy according to law. In today's international economy and trade, the fields involved in intellectual property protection are gradually broadened and the weight is gradually increased. In the future international trade competition, intellectual property rights will be the focus of competition.
The first is the influence on national culture. The spread of foreign cultural products through the Internet and other new media has had a certain impact on China culture. How to adhere to the dominant position of mainstream culture in an open environment and diversified trends and carry forward the excellent cultural traditions of the Chinese nation? We still need to be tested in meeting the cultural needs of the public.
The second is intellectual property protection. This is not only an issue that affects international relations, but also a hot spot of our concern. With the promotion of cultural innovation and the goal of building an innovative country, China really needs to vigorously protect intellectual property rights and protect our national innovation ability. If the infringement of intellectual property rights continues to interfere with the publishing market, it will not only bring chaos to the market order, but also bring unfair competition, bad culture and damage the country's innovation ability.
Of course, the intellectual property protection system in China has been established for a short time, and it will take some time to consolidate and improve. It is unreasonable for some western countries to ask too much of China in this respect. Our determination to crack down on infringement and piracy is unshakable, which is obvious to all the international community. No country in the world has made such great efforts to protect copyright as China, and even Americans appreciate our attitude. However, it takes time and process to solve these problems completely, and it needs more understanding and support from the international community. Don't use this thing to put pressure on China easily and become an excuse to affect our foreign trade and cultural exchanges. This is not good for China and foreign countries. I believe we can solve these two problems.