Canton Fair’s IPR Protection Serves as the Lifeline in Innovation and Development for Foreign Trade Companies

At the concluding press conference of the 123rd session of the Canton Fair, Xu Bing, Spokesperson of the Canton Fair and Deputy Director General of China Foreign Trade Centre introduced the achievements of Canton Fair’s Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection.

Xu said that after 26 years of continuous refinement, Canton Fair has now established a relatively complete set of system and practice in IPR protection that are consistent with Canton Fair’s reality. According to relevant regulations, Canton Fair Complaint Station determines whether the enterprise complained constitutes alleged IPR infringement and will then remove or temporarily detain the infringing goods, criticize the infringing enterprise publicly, deduce its booth or even cancel its qualifications for participation, depending on the severity of the alleged infringement.

Xu said that in his keynote speech at the Boao Forum for Asia, President Xi Jinping regarded strengthening IPR protection as one of the four major measures to pursue further opening, and pointed out that stronger IPR protection is the requirement of foreign enterprises, and even more so of Chinese enterprises. In this session of Canton Fair we continued to build up the shield of IPR protection and created a sound atmosphere where intellectual property rights were well respected so as to secure innovation driven development, transformation and upgrading.

Motivate enterprises to strengthen IPR protection by themselves. Canton Fair improved publicity of IPR protection to exhibiting enterprises before the fair. In response to the situation of some Chinese brands being registered one step ahead in overseas countries, we, at the Canton Fair, will remind companies in a timely manner and provide them with all due support to safeguard their trademark rights overseas. An increasing number of enterprises recognized the importance of intellectual property rights and regarded IPR protection as the lifeline of innovation and development. With growing awareness in respecting originality and initiative in innovation, more enterprises commit to IPR protection while increasing investment in technology research and development. The exploration of markets by prioritizing trademarks and brands has strongly bolstered the implementation of China's innovation-driven development strategy.

Crack down on alleged infringement of Intellectual Property Rights firmly. We insisted on both prevention and on-site case handling to strictly crack down on alleged infringement. Prior to the fair, companies that have records in alleged infringement or being filed for trade disputes were given “reminder notifications” listing issues that need to be self-censored, and all parties were reminded to work together to protect intellectual property rights. During the fair, Canton Fair Complaint Station intensified on-site inspection and achieved full coverage across all chains in all sections. This session, the Station handled 421 IPR cases and the number of exhibitors filed reached to 533. Eventually, 269 enterprises were determined as constituting alleged infringement and two of them are dealt with according to relevant regulations. The standardized handling procedures and smooth channels for rights protection at Canton Fair have created a fair business environment for exhibitors. More and more exhibiting companies dare to and are willing to display their latest products and state-of-the-art technologies at Canton Fair, forming an atmosphere where exhibitors serve as demonstration and compete for innovation.

Boost confidence in our national IPR protection. All staff Canton Fair Complaint Station strictly abided by the rules in dealing with complaints and strove to clarify liability and settle disputes properly, making most of the parties satisfied with the results. Enterprises from U.S., Germany, etc. spoke highly of Canton Fair’s IPR protection in different ways. Many fans left messages and gave likes on our social media platforms to express their trust in Canton Fair and confidence in doing business with China. One buyer from Malaysia suggested that thanks to the effective IPR protection work at Canton Fair, he is confident and free of worries to attend and source at the fair.

Canton Fair Press Centre