On August 13, 2023, China’s State Council issued the Opinions of the State Council on further optimizing the foreign investment environment and enhancing the attraction of foreign investment. The Opinions include intellectual property measures in the form of strengthening administrative protection of IP rights. The proposed measures in the field of IP should also have a positive impact on increasing investment.

It is proposed to improve the system for making administrative adjudication on patent infringement disputes and strengthen the enforcement of administrative adjudication. State Council claimed that it is important to strengthen the protection of IP rights in the procurement of drugs and medical consumables; companies must make an independent commitment not to violate any law or regulation when participating in procurement activities. For products involving IPR disputes, relevant departments must not approve the procurement, instead, they must disqualify the products from selection that have been found to infringe a patent.

Further, it is vital to crack down on IPR infringements of foreign-funded companies and take special enforcement measures against trans-regional infringement acts. The State Council offered to establish and improve an integrated online and offline enforcement mechanism and simplify procedural requirements accordingly.