Hainan Issues Regulations on Market Entity Cancellation and IPR Protection

According to the Information Office of Hainan Province, the "Regulations on the Cancellation of Market Entities in the Hainan Free Trade Port" and the "Regulations on the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in the Hainan Free Trade Port" are scheduled to take effect on March 1st and January 1st next year, respectively.

The “Regulations on The Cancellation of Market Entities in the Hainan Free Trade Port,” which is planned to take effect from March 1st, 2022, aims at the practical problems existing in the cancellation process of market entities. It is expected to guide or force inefficient and invalid market entities to withdraw from the market in an orderly manner according to the law, so as to reduce the risks caused by "tax-evading enterprises" and the social resources occupied by "tax-evading enterprises".

Liu Fengshuang, chief engineer of Hainan Provincial Market Supervision Administration stated that market entities will be allowed to apply for simple deregistration again after handling issues such as the deregistration of their branches, being listed in abnormal operations, and the frozen equity or investment rights and interests.

The “Regulations on the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in the Hainan Free Trade Port” is scheduled to come into force from January 1st, 2022. It highlights the administrative protection of intellectual property rights, or IPR, in key areas. It aims to improve the judicial protecting mechanism and system of IPR, strengthen IPR application and service, realize whole-process IPR protection, and strictly enforce the supervision, management, and legal responsibility of the intellectual property.

Deng Yunxiu, deputy director of Legislative Affairs Committee of Hainan Provincial People’s Congress said that the trial implementation of relevant regulations will be promoted in Hainan in line with international high-standard economic and trade rules. They will strengthen IPR protection, investigate and penalize malicious trademark registration applications that are not for the purpose of use, and abnormal patent applications that are not for the purpose of protecting innovation according to the law.