Shanghai enhances IP protection with comprehensive expansion

Shanghai will continue to protect foreign companies' intellectual property (IP) rights and improve the business environment, said Rui Wenbiao, director of the local IP bureau, at Tuesday's conference.

He said between 2020 and 2022, over 1,000 foreign-related trademark infringement cases have been handled. The bureau has taken part in over 100 international exhibitions and resolved more than 500 IP disputes for exhibitors.

"Foreign corporations not only provide jobs and taxes but also improve the economy, industry and technology. They're an important force in high-quality development," Rui said.

He added that overseas-related IP protection in the field of biological medicine will be focused on. Experts from global leading companies have been invited to discuss IP issues such as patent disputes for drugs.

"The bureau is working with the other IP authorities in the Yangtze River Delta region and guarantees equal IP protection to all domestic and international companies," he said.

In recent years, the China National Intellectual Property Administration have been focusing on IP protection to encourage domestic companies to innovate and promote openness to international firms, and push high-quality development in the region, said Liang Xinxin, an official at the nation's IP authority.

"The nearly 4 percent of national land area in the region has created about a quarter of the national economic aggregate, and has one third of valid patents a quarter of valid trademarks in China," said Liang.

Under the support of the IP administration and the national finance ministry, in 2022, companies in the region obtained 186.26 billion yuan ($26.33 billion) of loans from banks or other financial institutions by raising a mortgage on their IP rights, with a year-on-year increase of 72.6 percent, he said.

At Tuesday's conference, the national IP administration also launched a report on last year's IP protection and assistance in China.

It showed that over 700 new organizations for IP protection and assistance were established in 2022, adding the total to over 2,000 in China.

Over 1,300 new employees took positions with IP protection and assistance last year, with about 3,350 people in total.