China is achieving their plan to dominate global IP by 2035 – international IPR is key to reassert US leadership

At the end of September 2021, China released “The Outline of Building an Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Powerhouse (2021-2035)” (“Outline”) . The Outline serves as an important milestone policy through a top-down design at the state level in the intellectual property system, which includes two dates:

By 2025, China to achieve clear results in its positioning as an intellectual property rights powerhouse;

By 2035, China’s intellectual property rights to occupy leading positions in the world.

Over the past decade, China’s role in the worldwide innovation landscape has been evolved; from a labour intensive heavy-industry producer supplying labour, raw materials, plants and equipment, transitioning to a commercial economy, then transforming to a knowledge-based economy, and even becoming a high-tech country known for "smart" manufacturing and powered by domestically led next-generation technologies such as quantum computing, artificial intelligence and semiconductor chips. As intellectual property practitioners, we believe that intellectual property rights are an effective way to improve one’s bargaining power under international rule. In parallel with these industrial developments, we’ve also witnessed the great changes to the intellectual property landscape in China.