Six overseas centers awarded nameplates

A ceremony awarding nameplates to six overseas intellectual property protection centers was held on April 29 at an IP forum in Beijing.

The project, which started in 2014, is an effort by government officials and intellectual property authorities in Haidian district to provide Zhongguancun companies with better IP services when they go global and help enhance their ability to safeguard their IP rights overseas.

Located in Germany, France and the United Kingdom, the service centers have established partnerships with wellknown local law firms and IP agencies.

The Zhongguancun Intellectual Property Forum, organized by the Haidian government, Beijing Intellectual Property Office and Administrative Committee of the Zhongguancun Haidian Science Park, was held to increase public IP awareness and celebrate the 16th World IP Day, which falls on April 26 each year.

Meng Jingwei, deputy director of the Haidian district government, said at the forum that Haidian has always attached great importance to IP protection and operation, and leads the nation in many aspects. It is home to the first IP fund focusing on patent management and technical transfers and the first IP service cooperation organization.

China's first IP-themed bookstore opened in the district's Zhongguancun InnoWay, an area where innovative startups gather.

"As a new model of mass innovation, the bookstore is designed to integrate services that cover the whole industry chain including creation, protection, operation and management," said Zhu Mingang, chairman of Intellectual Property Publishing House, founder of the bookstore.

It will also exhibit and evaluate IP projects and organize financing activities, Zhu said.

Another highlight of the forum was the launch of an IP crowdfunding platform set up by Wangyuan Xunjie Technology Co.

The company's CEO Tang Linyao said the platform, which has gathered a group of attorneys and entrepreneurial advisers, would provide professional guidance on IP strategy for startups.

"We accept anything that relates to IP rights for fundraising, including patents, trademarks and designs," Tang said.

Startups joining the platform can access the resources of some colleges and research institutes in the district, he said.

Achievements in 2015

Organizations and individuals in Beijing's Haidian district filed 1,945 international patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, accounting for 43.3 percent of the PCT applications in the city.

The district had 31,181 patents granted last year, a year-on-year rise of 39 percent and with a growth rate nearly eight times that in 2014.

Among those were 15,618 invention patents, up 35.3 percent from the previous year.

The district strengthened its IP administrative and judicial protection. It organized joint law enforcement among related authorities such as the district's commission of commerce and the culture committee.

It handled 53 fake patent cases, 194 trademark infringement cases and 16 copyright infringement cases last year.

The Haidian district court handled 6,014 IP cases and concluded 4,871.

The district set up two IP protection centers in Germany and France to help companies from Haidian expand abroad.

The second IP Business Congress China was held in Haidian last year. Executives from companies including Microsoft, Google, Intel, Lenovo and Huawei, as well as insiders from IP operation organizations attended the event.

The district provided more support for aspects such as IP commercialization, development of the IP service sector and training of IP professionals.

With the help of a special policy on IP information services, the World Traditional Medicine Patent Database, developed by Beijing East Linden Science and Technology Co, was purchased by the Intellectual Property Corp of Malaysia.

haonan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 05/04/2016 page17)