The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's top economic planner, along with 37 other government agencies, issued a joint memorandum on penalties for serious breaches of intellectual property rights (IPR).

The release of the memorandum, one of the most detailed documents on IPR protection issued by China, signals a further step by China to strengthen IPR protection.

The penalties include restricting capital support from the government, tightening examination of government fund applications or reducing the scale of support, as well as limiting subsidies and social security funds to companies that have breached IPR.

Serious breaches include repeated infringement of patents or applying for patents in an "improper" way. Other outlawed practices include providing false documents and patent attorneys registering certificates in patent agencies in exchange for dividends without actually doing the work.

The memorandum assigned specific tasks to different government agencies. For example, the People's Bank of China, the central bank, has been told to include bad IPR-related records of entities to its financial database and online credit system.

The memorandum also set a short deadline for the implementation of the joint crackdown efforts.

http://english.ipraction.gov.cn/article/News/201812/20181200206918.shtml

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