China sets tougher guidelines to protect patents, copyrights

China’s leaders have issued new, tougher guidelines for the protection of patents, copyrights and other intellectual property.

The rules announced late Sunday appear timed to help along with halting progress in trade talks with the United States.

The guidelines order beefed up laws for protecting such intellectual property rights, increased compensation for infringements and stricter enforcement of existing laws. They also lower the threshold for criminal prosecution of IPR offences.

The new blueprint makes protection of intellectual property one of the criteria for evaluating local government officials’ performance, creating a greater incentive for compliance.

Theft and forced transfers of technology and inadequate protection of copyrights, patents and trademarks are perennial complaints of foreign companies operating in China and are among the key issues in the latest flareup in trade tensions.