New center opens in Shanghai to further protect IP
Shanghai Intellectual Property Protection Center opened on Thursday to further protect intellectual property and improve the business environment in the city.
It focuses on accelerating patent applications and safeguarding legitimate rights and interests, especially in the field of "future industries," such as new materials and energy conservation and environmental protection, as well as design patents.
It is the third city-level IP protection center in China and the first batch of national service bases for the patent. The center contains a Shanghai subcenter of national World IP Guidance to guide local companies in the protection of their IP rights overseas and help them understand international IP rules.
The Shanghai Intellectual Property Protection Center on Caobao Road in Xuhui District
Under the approval of the national IP administration, a "fast track" of patent application has opened to Shanghai-based enterprises in the field of new materials and energy conservation and environmental protection. It is based on the pre-qualification system of the new center, covering 115 categories of International Property Classification and three categories of Locarno Classification.
Before the review of the national department, the center can check the application materials from firms for free. If the company gets a pass from the local center, the green channel will open for a national review.
"The first company that applied for a patent received national authorization within 29 days," said Xu Zhuoqun, director of the development research center of the city's IP bureau. "In the past, the process took more than 20 months."
Meanwhile, the center has taken steps to enhance IP rights protection. A group of mediators with 80 people, 23 workstations and a think tank for overseas IP disputes have been established. It also strengthens communication with the city's courts and Shanghai Arbitration Commission.
A room for pre-trial mediation has been renewed with high-tech equipment, including speech-to-text for evidence and simultaneous interpretation.
"In the future, the remote hearing court is likely to be available in the new center," said Wang Jun, senior engineer of the information department of the center.
The room for pretrial mediation in the IP protection center
All these efforts are likely to make Shanghai achieve better results in the new assessment – Business Enabling Environment (BEE) of the World Bank Group – this year.
Yan Rui, director of the public services division of the bureau, said that according to the Concept Note released by the group recently, it's the first time that the World Bank has focused on IP and added many related evaluation indicators.
To attain a good score in digitization in the BEE, an online platform for IP protection will be launched soon. All services related to IP will be available on the website, such as management, innovation and application.
The website will also connect many related local departments, including courts, the arbitration commission, and agricultural and rural committees for all aspects of protection, said Gu Huirong, director of the bureau's IP protection division.
Yu Chen, deputy director of the bureau, said that about 36,800 new invention patents received a pass in Shanghai last year, with an increase of 11.98 percent year on year. And there were nearly 6,000 PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) international patent applications in the city last year with a year-on-year growth of 15.76 percent.
