China launches center to promote overseas IP dispute settlement

A national center has been established to offer guidance to Chinese entities on resolving overseas intellectual property (IP) disputes, the industry watchdog said Wednesday.

The launch of the center was part of efforts to enhance the mechanism in dealing with overseas IP disputes, said Zhao Gang, deputy head of the National Intellectual Property Administration (NIPA), at a press conference.

The center has two main tasks: to guide and serve Chinese enterprises in safeguarding their IP rights overseas; and to help them better understand and respect the IP systems and rules of overseas jurisdictions.

Once in full operation, the center will provide services through the Internet, a hotline and at its receptions, senior NIPA official Zhang Zhicheng said.

In recent years, Chinese enterprises are encountering a significantly rising number of IP disputes overseas. Zhang said the rise was caused by their inadequate understanding of overseas systems and legal procedures, difficulties in obtaining information and language barriers, as well as the lack of access to reliable professional assistance.

The new center will focus on constructing information collection and distribution channels of overseas IP disputes at the national level, and establishing a guidance and coordination mechanism for handling overseas IP disputes for Chinese enterprises.

Apart from the center, the NIPA has built overseas IP information service platforms, which currently have over 1,400 overseas intellectual property laws and regulations, and a directory of more than 350 foreign-related IP agencies and 40 experts, according to Zhang.

China has been striving to enhance its IP protection system to improve the business environment and advance opening-up.

In the first half of this year, foreign patent applications in China grew 8.6 percent and trademarks 15.4 percent, which "demonstrated foreign enterprises' confidence and trust in China's IP system," said Zhao.