China's IP Regulator to Explore Data IP Rules in 15th Five-Year Plan; GI Output Nears 1 Trillion Yuan

At a press conference on July 29, the National Intellectual Property Administration (NIPA) outlined its priorities for the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), focusing on five strategic areas. NIPA spokesperson and Deputy Director Rui Wenbiao said that laws and regulations including the Trademark Law and the Regulations on the Protection of Integrated Circuit Layout Designs have been revised, and the State Council executive meeting approved the 15th Five-Year Plan for Intellectual Property Protection and Utilization. The rapid collaborative protection system has been further improved, a long-term mechanism for patent transformation and utilization has been initially established, and the campaign to regulate the agency industry has been deepened, with public service systems supporting innovation further enhanced.

Liang Xinxin, Director of the Strategic Planning Department of NIPA, said that the 15th Five-Year Plan period will focus on five "special cards." The first card is to polish the "innovative economy" brand by continuously improving patent regulations and policies, ensuring timely and effective protection of major scientific and technological innovations, and promoting patent transformation and utilization through both improving patent quality and strengthening policy incentives to move more scientific achievements from laboratories to industrial chains. The second card is to build growth points for the "brand economy" by strengthening policy guidance, cultivating more internationally influential trademark brands, and leveraging the combined effects of multiple types of intellectual property such as trademarks and patents to form more Chinese brands that rely on patented technologies.

The third card is to ignite the vitality of the "specialty economy." During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the direct annual output value of China's geographical indication (GI) products approached 1 trillion yuan, playing a positive role in absorbing rural employment and increasing farmers' incomes. NIPA will continue to strengthen GI protection, advance the construction of national GI protection demonstration zones to high standards, innovate new scenarios integrating commerce, tourism, culture, and sports, and promote the organic combination of GI with the development of specialty industries, ecological civilization construction, and historical and cultural heritage. The fourth card is to build new support for the "digital economy" by continuously strengthening IP protection in integrated circuits, implementing the newly revised Regulations on the Protection of Integrated Circuit Layout Designs, and deeply studying the data IP system to explore the construction of data IP protection rules, using effective data IP legal governance to safeguard the development of the digital economy.

The fifth card is to create a favorable environment for the "open economy" by continuously strengthening research on foreign IP legal systems and policy environments, improving the guidance system for overseas IP dispute resolution, deeply aligning with high-standard international economic and trade rules, and adhering to equal and same-level protection of IP for both domestic and foreign-funded enterprises.

Regarding the two-way empowerment of IP and artificial intelligence, Rui Wenbiao said that the 15th Five-Year Plan period is a critical period for the accelerated development of the digital economy. IP-related departments have proposed goals and tasks for the two-way empowerment of IP and AI. On one hand, they will continue to promote AI-related IP system innovation, conduct in-depth research on theoretical and practical issues such as the patentability of AI-generated content, application subjects, and subject matter of protection, and timely revise the Guidelines for Patent Applications Related to AI Inventions, continuously improving patent examination standards for emerging industries and future industries such as "AI plus" embodied intelligence and brain-computer interfaces. Currently, China has publicly accepted over 900 items in commodity and service categories involving new industries and new business forms such as AI and big data, and will update them on a regular basis. On the other hand, they will continue to promote AI empowerment to improve the quality and efficiency of IP work, expand the deployment and application scenarios of AI large models in the IP field, and enhance the application capabilities of AI in various areas including IP examination, protection, utilization, services, management, and security.

In addition, during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, NIPA will also deeply participate in international cooperation on IP in the AI field and actively engage in the construction of relevant international rules, technical standards, and governance systems.