China's Patent Law, adopted on March 12, 1984 and amended for the first time on September 4, 1992, was amended for the second time on August 25, 2000 and came into effect on July 1, 2002. The motivation for such a move came from both domestic and international sources. The law had been in force for nearly 10 years since the first amendment in 1992. During this period of time many changes have taken place domestically, in both the social and economic spheres, that have made it necessary to amend the Patent Law for the second time. From an international perspective, China will soon accede to the WTO and yet there are still inconsistencies between China's Patent Law and the WTO's TRIPS Agreement in spite of the effort China has made in the past to conform the national IP laws to international practices.
