The 10th China Intellectual Property Annual Conference has given Chinese enterprises insights on potential IP risks in target markets and countermeasures to protect their IP overseas.
Song Beibei from the IP protection department of the National Intellectual Property Administration said during the recent event that IP protection in China has improved in many aspects in recent years.
However, three challenges remain for Chinese enterprises that are expanding globally: a lack of understanding of the rules in target markets, a lack of experts to give advice and a lack of money to cover litigation costs, Song said.
From Monday, users can talk to 350 institutions and 40 IP experts online for advice via the WeChat mini program.
Chen Guihua, a senior official of the Trade Remedy and Investigation Bureau at the Ministry of Commerce, said Chinese companies eyeing the United States market had to stand up to pressure from Section 337 investigations conducted by the US International Trade Commission into suspected unfair methods of importation.
The investigations are initiated, specifically against the suspected infringement of a US-registered patent, trademark, copyright or trade secret.
With China's rise on the global innovation landscape, more of the investigations have begun to target Chinese companies seeking to explore the US market, observers said.
Of 1,175 Section 337 investigations launched since 1986, 267 were against Chinese products, according to Chen. In 2016, 22 cases involving Chinese enterprises were investigated, accounting for 41 percent of the total filed in the US that year. In 2017, the number of Chinese enterprises investigated hit a record high. In 2018 the number was 19. By the first half of this year, it was 15.
According to IP industry insiders from companies worldwide, a thorough understanding of the case and the target market's IP policies will have a direct bearing on the outcome.
Source: China Daily
