China is stepping up its pressure on intellectual property piracy, and is considering increasing fines to up to 5 million yuan ($781,760).

The possible move came to light in a draft revision of China's Patent Law that was published by the government's Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council to seek public opinion.

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Under the current law, the amount of fines levied against patent violators are based on actual losses by the victim, or profits by the perpetrator. However, the new draft allows for compensation of up to three times the losses or gains. While a plaintiff can currently claim compensation between 10,000 yuan to 1 million yuan, the proposed leglisation would bump that amount to 5 million yuan.

"China wants a system that's more like ours. They want to move up the value chain because they don't want to be the low cost manufacturer of other people's inventions but they want to be the actual inventors and creators," said Michelle Lee, director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in an interview with intellectual property media platform IAM.

"They recognize that they need an intellectual property system that is more like ours and they are making changes legislatively to their patent law, copyright law, trademark law and contemplating changes to their trade secret laws."

A report on patent enforcement in China released by the USPTO noted "the importance of China as a growing market for U.S. companies that rely on intellectual property (IP) and the need for China's patent regime, and IP regime more generally, to provide a reliable, transparent, and fair system."

The report sited improvements China has made in protecting intellectual property, however, it said there is still a need for further progress in certain, key areas particular to enforcing  IP laws.

TagsChina Considers Harsher Penalties for Patent Violations, draft revision of China’s Patent Law, Chinese Patent Law, Intellectual property theft, intellectual property, patent laws, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Chinatopix