China’s Cyber Security Law, which will take effect from 1 June, 2017 was finally adopted on 7 November. The third draft of the law adopted by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s highest legislative authority, contained few changes from the second draft put forward for comment in July, 2016 (see our briefing).
The net result is on-going controversy coupled with uncertainty, with multi-national businesses in particular questioning the intent behind the law and criticising its vagueness.
All in all, the direction of travel is towards a much more heavily regulated Chinese internet and technology sector. In this briefing, we shine a light on the aspects of the new law that are most relevant to intellectual property (“IP”) law (for a full overview of the new law, see our most recent TMT briefing).