Holding Hands With the Power Valley to Serve New Hunan —2018 National Brand IP Service Agencies Event Concludes Successfully
By Doris Li, China IP
On April 25-26, National Brand IP Service Agencies Event was successfully held in Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province. Liu Jufang, vice director of the Planning and Development Department of the SIPO; Duan Zhengxiong, director of the Intellectual Property Office of Hunan Province; Liu Yuehong, vice director of the Intellectual Property Office of Hunan Province; and Yu Minggang, vice chairman of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee of Zhuzhou City attended the opening ceremony. This activity was sponsored by the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) of the People’s Republic of China, organized by the Intellectual Property Office of Hunan Province, co-organized by the Patent Agent Association of Hunan Province, the Intellectual Property Office of Zhuzhou City, and the National HiTech Industrial Development Zone of Zhuzhou City, titled “Holding Hands with the Power Valley to serve New Hunan,” The event coincided with the National Intellectual Property Week and the 18th World Intellectual Property Day. It has attracted more than 200 participants from around 20 Brand IP Service (Training) Agencies nationwide, the IP authorities of Hunan Province and Changsha City, Zhuzhou City and Xiangtan City etc., the HiTech Industrial Development Zone of Zhuzhou City, and other enterprises and institutions and IP service organizations, as well as central and local media.
One of the first eight major industrial cities constructed by the Chinese government after 1949, Zhuzhou City has been one of the time-honored industrial bases. Beijing-Guangzhou Railway and Shanghai-Kunming Railway intersect at Zhuzhou and Zhuzhou becomes China's important “cross-railway”. It contains three major innovative power industries, including the railway equipment industry, the automotive and parts industry, and the aviation equipment industry.
Entering Hunan to exploit advantages, and support innovation
In her address to the meeting, Liu Jufang, vice director of the Planning and Development Department of the SIPO said that the speech of President Xi Jinping on the importance of IP protection explains profoundly the significance of IP protection in improving the competitiveness of the Chinese economy. We should be equipped with enthusiasm and responsibilities toward intellectual property and have the mission to strengthen the IP protection. In building the modern economic system, IP should be given full play, to support the transformation from “Made in China” to “Created in China” and to “Intelligent Manufactured in China.”
Vice director Liu pointed out that China’s economy is in the period of changing the development mode, optimizing the economic structure, and transforming the growth momentum. As an important part of the modern service industry, the intellectual property service industry is a key area for the development of hightech service industries and a key task for science and technology service industry. The development of branded intellectual property services is the only way for the service industry to become bigger and stronger. In the National Plan for the Protection and Application of Intellectual Property Rights in the 13th Five-Year Period, the State Council required clearly to "Cultivate largescale, professional, market-oriented and internationalized intellectual property service brand organizations". The SIPO has selected 145 National Brand IP Service (Training) Agencies, 95 of which have become Brand IP Service Agencies. These agencies work energetically and courageously to explore new service models, develop new service areas, and move up along the value chain. They have managed to win the recognition of the market with high quality professional services, and achieved good social and economic performance as a signpost and leader.
Vice director Liu emphasized that Hunan is the first stop of holding hands with economy development series event in 2018. Hunan Province has a long history and a glorious revolutionary tradition, now working hard to build a rich, beautiful and happy new world. “ChangshaZhuzhou-Xiangtan area” is a national independent innovation demonstration area and national high-tech service industry base. Zhuzhou has a solid industrial base and distinctive features such as rail transit, aviation, and new energy vehicles. It is charged with the mission to help Chinese manufacturing industry grow bigger and stronger and go international. To build a modern powerful country, the real economy is indispensable, which must be fully supported by IP. And IP must be fully employed to build a strong business, a strong province and a strong country.
According to Duan Zhengxiong, director of the Intellectual Property Office of Hunan Province, the specific measures will be concerning IP services to increase the amount and quality of IP; IP protection to optimize the business environment; IP usage to stimulate innovation and growth. Efforts will be made to accelerate the development of a strong province for intellectual property rights, innovate IP services, and lead the opening up and rising strategy. These will combine to help with the quality growth of the local economy. At the mean time, he invited sincerely Natonal Brand IP Service Agencies to enter Hunan, settle in Hunan and take root in Hunan. All cities, prefectures, industrial parks, facilities, enterprises and institutions are expected to actively work with those brands, explore multiple cooperative models, and give full play to IP in supporting and leading quality economic growth.
Exchanging, negotiating and cooperating with each other
The event consists of keynote speeches by National Brand IP Service Agencies, discussions with enterprises and institutions, workshops with local service organizations, field investigations in the industrial park, and promotional activities on the local policy environment.
During the experience sharing section, Zhang Chi, chairwoman of Guangzhou Urchem Information Consultation Co., Ltd. Shared “Experience in Corporate IP Management From the Perspective of Patent Information”. With the figures, she compared visually the number of patent applications and its tendencies in China, the United States and Japan from 1954 to 2016. She also made national and regional rankings and trend distributions covered by the 337 surveys from 1972 to 2018. With the case study of the IP management of Asahi Kasei Corporation and the concept of “Total Patent Search,” she tried to remind the participants on how to build a corporate IP strategy and a risk prevention system. She believed that IP-related risks should be prevented essentially by avoiding repeated research and development (R&D) work, implementing major R&D projects, launching new products in the market, developing the overseas market, and participating in international exhibitions.
The Vision and Actions on Jointly Building Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road was jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China on March 28, 2015. With the opening of the “Belt and Road” Economic Zone, over 3,000 projects have been contracted. In 2015, A total of 49 “Belt and Road” countries have been directly invested by Chinese companies, with investment up 18.2% year on year. Also in 2015, China’s contractual service outsourcing of “Belt and Road” countries amounted to 17.83 billion USD, and the implementation amounted to 12.15 billion USD, which was a year-on-year increase of 42.6% and 23.45% respectively. During the event, Cheng Yong, chief of the Patent and Trademark Office of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade shared the IP strategies and countermeasures under the “Belt and Road” Program. He studied the latest development of IP protection, the IP protection strategy, and how to valuate IP legal services under the “Belt and Road” Program. emphasizing the importance of IP protection due to the need of a company’s overseas brand building, performing local social responsibilities, abiding by international trade rules and enhancing risk prevention capability. He also reminded enterprises participating in the “Belt and Road” that risks of laws and regulations, contract risks, and intellectual property protection/ infringement risks are all important potential risks, which should have the attention of businesses.
Chen Liang, manager of Advance China IP Law Office (ACIP) shared the experience of the firm with other guests in his presentation titled “HighValue Patent Landscape and Operation”. He believed that the cultivation of highvalue patents consists of “navigation - creation - protection - exploitation” stages. Also, the highly technical result achieved by the innovator, the high quality writing of the patent agent, the highly efficient examination of the examiner, and the highly effective operation of the patent operator are necessary processes.
Reportedly in the recent two years, the number of patent-related cases received by the courts of law in Hunan Province has rocketed from 4,518 in 2016 to 8,519 in 2017. Chen Xuyun, a lawyer from Hunan Tiandiren Law Firm shared the experience of the firm on risk control and the protection of legal rights which were interesting to companies. Failures to finely search for R&D technology in the earlier stage, to identify the ownership of intellectual property, and to protect IPR in the later period are main causes of risk. He recommended that companies should have an IP management system covering the department setup and the recording system. Moreover, he shared the experience on how a company can protect its IP rights in patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret.
To enhance IP development in Zhuzhou
During the workshop, people from the Coordination Office of the Intellectual Property Office of Hunan Province and the Industrial Bureau of Zhuzhou Hi-Tech Zone updated the participants on local IP policies. Focusing on the topic to “improve the quality and promote the protection of intellectual property”, representatives from Zhengzhou Ruixin Intellectual Property Agency Co., Ltd., Beijing Bizsolution Software Inc., Shenzhen Wispro Intellectual Property Agency Firm, Changsha Zonekey Patent & Trademark Law Firm, Zhuzhou New Power Intellectual Property Service Co., Ltd. and Zbj.com delivered speeches, shared their experiences, and networked with local service organizations.
As an important base of railway transportation, aviation and new energy vehicles, Zhuzhou expects deep and through understanding. During the event, participants visited the Exhibition Hall of the Power Valley of China, tried the Smart-Rail Bus, and surveyed Zhuzhou Time New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. (which is a company within CRRC Corporation Limited). They gained further knowledge on the major industries in Zhuzhou, looking forward to deep and effective cooperation in the future.
To bridge the demand and supply sides for IP services, carry out the coordinated development of the Jing (Beijing) - Jin (Tianjin) - Ji (Hebei) Region, “Belt and Road” Program and the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and assist “Mass entrepren eurship and innovation”, upon the request of local IP offices, the SIPO had organized 11 programs of “Holding Hands With Economy Development Series Event of Brand IP Service Agencies” in Tianjin, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Jiangxi and Anhui by the end of 2017. These activities focus on the practical demand of the local areas for economic and industrial development, and guide Brand IP Service Agencies to provide tailored quality services. Totally more than 1,300 enterprises and institutions have been attracted, and a larger number of cooperative projects have been achieved. The result has been very practical. After Hunan, similar activities will continue in Yunnan, Liaoning and Gansu later this year. （Translated by Ren Qiangtao)
