China has made remarkable achievements in the fields of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and business environment optimization in 2021, according to a report released at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office in Beijing. Li Jian, head of the third civil tribunal of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), attended the event and answered questions from the media.

Li introduced China's IPR protection from a judicial perspective. The SPC released directives which specified overall requirements and detailed measures in reinforcing IPR-related trial work in the new era, and formulated a series of judicial interpretations to support innovation. Judicial reform was further deepened to optimize the layout of jurisdiction, improve the specialized IPR trial system and integrate the trials of IPR cases in civil, commercial and criminal categories into the jurisdiction of IP courts. Efforts were made to work with related departments such as the State Administration for Market Regulation and the National Intellectual Property Administration in a bid to better connect administrative enforcement with judiciary efforts. Research was conducted to tackle new issues and explore solutions in emerging industries such as big data, artificial intelligence and genes technologies. Regulations on online litigation, mediation and operation were released in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the construction of smart courts was intensified to meet the diversified judicial needs from the public.

China ranked 12th in the Global Innovative Index 2021 released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, up two places from 2020. A survey on business confidence in China in 2021 done by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China showed that for the first time in this yearly survey, over half of the interviewees rated China's law enforcement in IPR cases as "adequate" and "excellent".