Editing Intellectual property in China (section)

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{{Redirect2|Piracy in China|Chinese piracy|maritime piracy in China|Piracy#East Asia|allegations of intellectual property piracy by China|Allegations of intellectual property infringement by China}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2013}} 
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}

'''Intellectual property rights''' (IPRs) have been acknowledged and protected in [[China]] since 1980. China has acceded to the major international conventions on protection of rights to [[intellectual property]]. Domestically, protection of intellectual property law has also been established by government legislation, administrative regulations, and decrees in the areas of [[trademark]], [[copyright]], and [[patent]].

China first began accepting foreign IP concepts when foreign countries forced the Qing dynasty to accept them as part of the bilateral treaties that followed the [[Boxer Protocol]]. The early People's Republic of China abolished the statutes enacted by China's Nationalist government and adopted an approach to copyright, trademark, and patent issues more consistent with the model of the Soviet Union. Chinese policymakers became interested in integrating into the global IP framework as the government sought to import more technology in the 1970s.

In the 1980s, China began to join international treaties on IP issues. After joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, it assumed IP obligations under the TRIPS Agreement and revised its domestic laws to conform to the TRIPS standards. Internationally, China's view is that the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) should be the primary international forum for IP rule-making. Generally, China's approach internationally is to advocate for maintaining the TRIPS standards, sometimes joining with other developing countries to oppose an increase in obligations beyond TRIPS.

China's legal framework for intellectual property protection is developing rapidly as China becomes a source of innovation, although its IP framework is still less developed than most industrialized nations as of 2023. The general trend of its IP system has been to develop towards increasing similarity with the E.U. and U.S. systems.