International Intellectual Property Protection under the RCEP Perspective

Abstract

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), initiated by ten ASEAN countries, entered into force on 1 January 2022. In this agreement, intellectual property rights are an important chapter of the discourse. The RCEP intellectual property rules cover a large number of international conventions and have a broader scope of rights. In addition, in addition to civil remedies and border measures, the RCEP includes provisions for criminal procedures and penalties for infringement of IPRs. While China's IPR protection system has been improving since it joined WIPO in 1980, RCEP, as the most extensive and advanced IPR rule that China has signed to date, places additional demands on China's IPR protection system. On this basis, this article compares China's existing IPR legislation with the relevant provisions of RCEP, to clarify the significance of RCEP for the development of IPR protection in China.