[China Patents and Trademarks] Success Only Favors Those Who Boldly Forge Ahead –Shanghai Travel Journal for an Interview Themed as “Competitive Future of Intellectual Property” July 23, 2018, “It is opening-up that has given Shanghai a renewed life and contributed to its prosperity.” In the past forty years, Shanghai has always been a forerunner of reform and opening up and a pacesetter of innovation and development. In the past ten years since the implementation of the Outline of the National Intellectual Property Strategy, Shanghai, centering around the strategic objective of building an intellectual property hub in Asia-Pacific region featuring “a gathering of innovation elements, a complete protection system, a sound service system and convergence of top talents”, has realized great-leap-forward development of intelligent property strategy, made significant progress in the entire chain of intelligent property including creation, application, protection, management and service, pooled the efforts of all sides for IP protection and created a world-class business environment. As an increasingly significant impetus to the social economy, intellectual property has been constantly making new contributions to the development of Shanghai. Perfecting the top-level design with continuous efforts in more than ten years In recent years, The Government of China has elevated the protection of intellectual property to an unprecedentedly high level. At the opening ceremony of the 2018 Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference, President Xi Jinping of the People's Republic of China delivered a keynote speech and listed the enhancement of intellectual property protection as one of the four major initiatives to further open up, conveying to the world once again China's firm stance of protecting strictly intellectual property rights according to law. For the past ten years or so, in line with the overall trend and direction of the international intellectual property development, Shanghai has made thorough plans for intellectual property protection by focusing on national economic and social development strategies, succeeding in identifying the real breakthrough point and the major driving force of intellectual property. In September 2004, Shanghai first enacted a local intellectual property strategy compendium titled Intellectual Property Strategy Compendium of In the past ten years since the implementation of the National Intellectual Property Strategy Compendium, under the guidance of advanced top-level design, Shanghai has witnessed an increasingly higher level when it comes to creation and application of intellectual property, and an improvement in both the quantity and quality of patents, trademarks and copyrights. In 2017, Shanghai Intellectual Property Office revised Measures of Shanghai Municipality for Patent Fee Financial Assistance, shifting the focus towards improving the quality and capabilities for the application, protection and management of intellectual property rights, and changing the priority of the creation of intellectual property rights from quantity to quality. Dare to be the first – pioneering the reform of local intellectual property institutions in China 20 years ago, both the first basic-level and “Three in One” (criminal, civil and administrative) intellectual property tribunal among courts of China originated in Pudong New Area, Shanghai. The reform of “Three-in-One” of people’s courts of Pudong New Area was written into the National Intellectual Property Strategy Compendium. It was widely distributed and copied nationwide, exerting significant influences on the judicial system of China in terms of intellectual property. Now, 20 years have passed, and Shanghai has built a “Three-in-One” Intellectual Property Office operating independently both in the Free Trade Zone and Pudong New Area. It has been the first city to do so in China and has caused great sensation. Pudong New Area is the pilot for the state comprehensive supplementary reforms, and the centralized management of intellectual property conducted in Pudong New Area is in compliance with the international conventions and the strategic positioning of Shanghai as a pioneer and forerunner in reform and opening up as proposed by the State. Pudong New Area has made full use of the advantages of comprehensive management of intellectual property, figuring out a working pattern of “strict, comprehensive, quick and fair protection” driven by “four-wheels”, namely, administrative protection, judicial protection, arbitration mediation and social supervision. Meanwhile, it adheres to the protection principle of “being open and transparent, without discrimination” and strive to create a favorable business and innovation environment. Pudong New Area has also established an efficient linking mechanism between the administrative protection and judicial protection of intellectual property, and has signed the strategic cooperation agreement with Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, Court of Pudong New Area and Procuratorate of Pudong New Area; it has established “Judge Work Room”, “Office of the Attorney General” and applied a multi-mechanism for mediation to solve the disputes over intellectual property in a rapid and harmonious way at low costs. On July 25, 2017, China (Pudong) Intellectual Property Protection Center, the first intellectual property protection center of China, was launched to build a national-level functional platform for intellectual property boasting quick examination, right verification, right protection and efficient operation of intellectual property. So far, the platform has helped more than 200 companies successfully pass the quick examination and filing by the State Intellectual Property Office, and the time of authorizing an invention or patent is shortened from 3 years to 3 months. Those for utility model patents are granted within one month and those for appearance design are granted within one week. Besides, it has been exploring ways to conduct trials of cases involving invalid patents under the support of the Patent Re-examination Board of the State Intellectual Property Office. The Center provides equal protection to the intellectual property rights of both domestic and foreign enterprises, both state-owned and private enterprises, both units and individuals, giving all the market players and innovators a sense of fairness and justice. In August 2017, in the cases with respect to the suspected infringement upon the fruit trademark of New Zealand that are investigated by public security, procuratorate and judicial organs, more than 2 million counterfeit logos of registered trademarks were seized, which was highly recognized by the Consulate General of New Zealand in Shanghai. Innovating continuously, guiding development and safeguarding the construction of Free Trade Zone China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (Shanghai Free Trade Zone) has been the first free trade zone in China, and Shanghai has been actively engaged in formulating relevant laws and regulations of the Pilot Free Trade Zone, putting forward the working idea and operating mode in respect of intellectual property management and protection in the Free Trade Zone, which mainly includes: complying strictly with the international conventions of intellectual property which China already joined and building a protective environment for intellectual property in line with international practices; exploring a mechanism of unified management and law enforcement for intellectual property in the Pilot Free Trade Zone and establishing a specialized administrative agency of patent, trademark and copyright (three-in-one); strengthening the judicial protection of intellectual property and establishing a special tribunal to improve the connection between administrative protection and judicial protection; exploring and establishing a long-term protection mechanism for intellectual property, and completing a multi-mechanism involving judicial, administrative, arbitration, mediation and other organs for solving intellectual property disputes. With the rapid development of Shanghai Free Trade Zone, it has been in increasingly higher demand for judicial protection of intellectual property. Since its establishment on December 28, 2014, Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, as one of three Special Courts of Intellectual Property in China, , has always adhered to the judicial polices of “Leading role of judicature, strict protection, classified strategy and harmonious proportion” for the sake of fostering an “international, law-based and convenient” business environment for Free Trade Zone and providing powerful judicial service and safeguard for improving the business environment in the Free Trade Zone. Taking into consideration the fact that many of cases in the Free Trade Zone involve international famous enterprises - mostly those in such industries as international trade, modern logistics and microelectronic, parallel import and new types of competitive behaviors in the field of Internet, Shanghai Intellectual Property Court actively meets the judicial needs of the Free Trade Zone and establishes a collegiate bench dedicated to intellectual property cases in the Free Trade Zone that tries on a centralized basis the civil and administrative cases involving intellectual property in the Free Trade Zone; builds an institutionalized and standardized technical fact-finding mechanism of “Four-in-One” comprised of technical investigation, technical consultation, expert jury and technical appraisal so as to give more professional support for technical cases; focus on cracking thorny problems including long period and low compensation, thus to enhance the timeliness of judicial protection and fully realize the market value of intellectual property; establishes a complete and diversified dispute settlement mechanism in line with the features of the Free Trade Zone and signs cooperation agreements with 11 social mediation organizations and industry associations to facilitate mediations before and during lawsuits as well as connection of litigation and mediation in an effort to solve disputes quickly and properly. Given that Free Trade Zone also features export-oriented economy and a global business environment, Shanghai Intellectual Property Court actively responds to the interests and judicial demands of the global investors and traders in the Free Trade Zone in respect of intellectual property, competitive order, risk prevention and control, respects and protects equally the intellectual properties of all kinds of market players, and constructs a protection system of “strict, comprehensive, quick and fair protection”. Craftsmanship spirit and accumulative effect - national brands go to the world Shanghai has been one of the earliest regions in China to register and use trademarks in history, and the trademark development of Shanghai has always played an important role in the whole country. For hundreds of years, Shanghai has attracted a large number of industrial enterprises, and been the birthplace for numerous time-honored national industrial brands and famous trademarks which bear witness to the development history of Shanghai and China’s national industry. The gene of Shanghai Culture is deeply ingrained in Shanghai's unique brand culture which is an inspiration for the development of Shanghai trademarks and brands nowadays. “Lao Feng Xiang” –known as the Huangpu Military Academy, and the cradle of masters in the gold jewelry industry of China, originated 170 years ago. For hundreds of years, Lao Feng Xiang has always stayed true to its original intention while being in pursuit of innovation and giving play to the spirit of craftsmanship in its blood, resulting in constant improvement of its core competitiveness. Lao Feng Xiang has come to the realization that innovation of intellectual property, mainly patents and trademarks, is a major source of power for the sustainable development of time-honored brands. Lao Feng Xiang applies for more than 100 patents every year; meanwhile, it is the groundwork of brand protection that the time-honored brand is registered as a trademark and Lao Feng Xiang devotes much attention to the legal protection of the brand and the purification of market environment. Lao Feng Xiang attaches great importance to exploring new cultural connotations and follows closely the trend of the times; in 2016, it cooperated with Disney China, and the young, romantic and dreamlike cartoon images give the old brand a more stylish and vivid touch. During the past two years, Lao Feng Xiang has opened many stores in Hong Kong, New York, Vancouver and other cities, and entering overseas market implies that national brand Lao Feng Xiang is heading toward the goal of “nationalization, internationalization and globalization” in an attempt to build a Shanghai brand with international competitiveness and to breathe new life into the gold-lettered signboard. Fengxian is trying to build a city image of “cross-shaped water streets and green corridors in the shape of Chinese character of Tian (田) where one can have a glimpse of the world and travelling back to five thousand years ago in dream” Now, a beautiful “Oriental Beauty Valley” is emerging here: one in every four facial masks in China is produced in Fengxian; every day, more than one quarter of cosmetics companies of Shanghai process and manufacture beauty and health products here, and the beauty and health products with a total value of output exceeding RMB ten billion yuan are packaged and sub packaged here and then sold at home and abroad. Fengxian is endeavoring to build the “Oriental Beauty Valley” into an industrial, urban and cultural brand enjoying a global reputation. Trademark is a priority for brand building. From 2015 when the concept of the “Oriental Beauty Valley” was firstly proposed until now, a series of191 word marks, figurative marks and English trademarks of the “Oriental Beauty Valley” have been approved and registered. This provides more room for development for the brand construction and application in “Oriental Beauty Valley” featuring beauty and health industry. Thanks to the aggregation effect of famous brands, the “Oriental Beauty Valley” has attracted a gathering of numerous well-known enterprises both from home and abroad, such as Jala, Pechoin, Kans, Cosmax, Nuskin and Interfila, forming an industrial cluster. Crowned as the “Cosmetic Capital of China”, “Oriental Beauty Valley” has now made its name at home and even on the world stage. Now, it is aiming to build a special industrial cluster of beauty and health industry that ranks the top in scale in China and even in Asia and that boasts proprietary intellectual property rights. Due to the rapid development of the industries and high aggregation of brands, there is an urgent need to enhance the protection of trademark and accommodate market conversion of intellectual property including trademarks. On September 29, 2017, Shanghai Trademark Examination Cooperation Center (STECC) was established officially in Xuhui District, and it is the first trademark examination cooperation center established outside Beijing. Currently, the Center assumes about one quarter of workloads for examination of trademark registration in China and also handles directly the registration of international trademarks through the Madrid system and conducts examination of the same; it has been expanding actively the functions of the Madrid international trademark registration window, trying to make its service available to applicants from Yangtze River Delta and Eastern China and going a step further to take full charge of the examination work for international trademark registration through the Madrid system. STECC has set up a special exhibition hall--Shanghai Trademark Historical and Cultural Corridor which, themed around "the trademark development and management of Shanghai in the evolution of the times", reflects the historical course of Shanghai's social and economic development since opening as a commercial port in 1843 from the unique perspective of trademark, displays the historical footprints and brilliant achievements of trademarks in the course of Shanghai's brand development and manifests the avant-garde notion that trademarks are a major driving force to help Shanghai go to the world and become an international metropolis. Taking roots in China and having a global outlook - establishing an internationalized mechanism on cultivation of intellectual property talents As one of the key tasks that build Shanghai into a scientific and technological innovation center with global influence, the first intellectual property college with “international” in its title in China, Shanghai International College of Intellectual Property, was founded on November 17, 2016. China ranks top in the world in terms of the volume of invention & patent applications for seven consecutive years, and is without doubt a big power of intellectual property is undisputed. However, there are still shortcomings in China's intellectual property protection, and it is very difficult for domestic enterprises to respond to international intellectual property disputes; thus it is urgent to train high-end intellectual property talents with international background, make the voice of China heard in the process of formulating the rules of international organizations and gain the right of discourse on international stage. Ultimately, it all comes down to professional talents. Shanghai International College of Intellectual Property is the seventh training base established by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) globally to cultivate high-end intellectual property talents. It admits students from across the world and boasts outstanding international faculty, making numerous innovations in terms of faculty evaluation, talent training and scientific research. The College currently offers Master Program in Intellectual Property law (Design Law) and "the Belt and Road Initiative" Postgraduate Program in Intellectual Property, and both Chinese students and international students from more than ten countries study together here. The College also undertakes several national key projects to build a national think tank for intellectual property. The College is aimed at broadening up the international vision of Chinese students, expanding their international mind and enriching their knowledge of the world; meanwhile, it introduces the legal systems, legislative foundation and practical cases in China to international students to export the Chinese wisdom and to facilitate international exchange and communication. The College has also offered opportunities for Chinese students to enter international organizations and established a standard practice of sending three Chinese students to WIPO for internship every year. Be realistic and pragmatic - exploring the realization system of intellectual property value In recent years, in order to promote the conversion and transaction of intellectual property, Shanghai has established a series of market trading platforms, including Shanghai Intellectual Property Trading Center, Shanghai Copyright Trading Center, Shanghai Culture Assets and Equity Exchange, Shanghai Industrial Intellectual Property Operating Fund, National Base for International Culture Trade (Shanghai) and so on. On January 13, 2017, Shanghai Intellectual Property Trading Center was formally inaugurated. It is an international operation service system for intellectual property with five major trading sectors, i.e. patents, technical secrets, trademarks, copyrights and layout designs of integrated circuits. Based in Shanghai, serving the whole country and with a global outlook, it is both an international comprehensive intellectual property transaction platform and a specialized equity capital market service platform integrating into a whole patent, copyright, right of authorship, trademark and other rights & interests transaction services of intellectual property. Drawing upon social resources, the platform guides social capital, cultivate projects and provide whole-process services including application for intellectual property protection, capital operation, late-period transaction and application & conversion, with a view to promoting the realization of intellectual property value. At the same year when the Center was founded, the number of intellectual property projects intended for listing amounted to 888, in which 20 projects concluded transactions with the overall transaction value reaching about RMB 148 million yuan. Pudong New Area, in the light of the characteristic of concentration of innovative technology industries in this region and playing a guiding role in implementation of polices, guides social organizations to jointly build an intellectual property value realization system of “Five-in-One” integrating investment, loan, insurance, trading and service that helps intellectual properties act on the market, releases their huge potential and helps enterprises maximize the benefits by enhancing the application of intellectual property; launched the first intellectual property finance card in the whole country, realized standardization of intellectual property financial products, large scale of business and reproducibility of modes; launched the first batch of comprehensive intellectual property insurance in China, covering both patent and trademark. Forty-year trials and tribulations - making new progress with diligence and courage In retrospect, time has brought earth-shaking changes to the world in the past forty years. Now, we are embarking upon a new journey. Nowadays, Shanghai is promoting the “integrated development of intellectual property in the Yangtze River Delta Area” with the aims of establishing an innovation center for science and technology with global influence, building the four brands of “service, manufacturing, shopping and culture” and setting up a sound innovation system that is scientific and reasonable, highly vigorous and more efficient. As a forerunner of China, it will provide powerful backup for building a modern socialist international metropolis. “Aim higher even at a high place and set out for a farther place even after a long journey.” Shanghai, the pacemaker of national reform and innovation, now sets off again from a new and higher starting point.
