ABSTRACT
The year of 2009 marks the 30th anniversary of China’s legal reform, paralleling with the State’s policy of reform and opening launched in 1978. The intellectual property (IP) law system under the Chinese Communist regime also started around that period. In a nutshell, the Trademark Law was passed in 1982 based on several years of preparation and drafting; two years later, in 1984, the Patent Law was enacted, and fi nally, the Copyright Law was born in 1990 after many years of drafting. These laws were accompanied by their respective implementing rules and were followed by other IP legislations such as Integrated Circuit Layout Designs Regulations (2001), Software Regulations (2002), Plant Varieties Regulation (1997), Well-Known Marks Regulations (2003) and Internet Transmission Rights Regulations (2006), among others. The three major IP laws have also been amended several times in the past three decades. For example, the Trademark Law was amended in 1993 and 2001; the Patent Law was amended in 1992, 2000 and 2008; and the Copyright Law was amended in 2001. Following the amendments of the laws, the respective implementing rules were also amended.
