The government will take further action this year to protect intellectual property rights (IPR), Vice-Premier Wu Yi said yesterday.

"China has made remarkable progress in IPR protection in a very short history spanning just 30 years," she said at a national conference for directors of intellectual property offices.

The progress made has helped safeguard the legitimate rights of IPR owners and guaranteed a fair economic order," Wu said.

"We will use the protection measures to enhance Chinese people's innovation capacity while building a harmonious and a moderately prosperous society in all respects," the vice-premier said.

She said the government will put more emphasis on law enforcement and also amend laws on patents, trademarks and copyrights in a timely fashion to accommodate technological developments.

Over the past year, the country has made huge progress on IPR protection, Tian Lipu, commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office, said at yesterday's conference.

The country accepted more than 4 million domestic and overseas patent applications last year, compared with 3 million in 2006, he said.

Also last year, the number of domestic and overseas trademark registrations rose to 3 million, again much higher than in 2006.

This indicates a massive amount of progress in terms of both Chinese people's awareness of the need for intellectual property rights, and the country's innovation capacity, Tian said.

The Patent Law, which was implemented in 1985, has played an increasingly positive role in stimulating innovation and technological progress, he said.

To keep pace with economic and technological developments, the law is soon to be revised, Tian said.

A draft of the amended law, which includes a huge amount of input from the public and experts, has been completed and submitted to the State Council for approval, he said.

A nationwide campaign will also be launched later this year to improve the public's awareness of key IPR issues and to help nurture an IPR culture within the commercial sector, Tian said.

(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2008)