Shanghai plans to establish an IPR framework for foreign firms

The third branch of the Shanghai People's Procuratorate and the Shanghai Foreign Investment Association will collaborate on establishing an intellectual property rights protection mechanism aimed at foreign-funded firms to promote the city as a hub for international IPR protection.

On Wednesday, the two sides inked a collaboration agreement to develop the system, which will include information sharing, clue input, complete IPR safeguarding, and legal services.

The framework will establish a swift channel for foreign-funded enterprises to safeguard their rights and interests, along with an enhanced mechanism for gathering evidence and making decisions in civil affairs infringement, administrative penalties, criminal acts, and public interest litigation.

This will provide foreign-funded enterprises with a variety of channels and comprehensive solutions for IPR safeguarding.

A legal service platform will be established, with a focus on industries' development orientation and key technology sectors, to address the concerns of foreign-funded enterprises.

"We heard our members' voices and discovered that their difficulties are obtaining evidence, protecting their rights in cross-region cases, and the long hearing time in patent infringement litigation cases," said Ma Lan, the association's deputy secretary-general.

"The mechanism tackles these difficulties by providing a fast channel for enterprises to express their concerns and safeguard their IPR, as well as raising awareness of legal and commercial risks," the official stated.

The bilingual versions of the Guidelines for Laws and Regulations of Trade Secrets and Guidelines for Legal Protection of Corporate IPs were released to assist foreign-funded enterprises in establishing a solid internal intellectual property compliance management system, improving their overall IPR protection, and improving their ability to prevent external intellectual property risks.

The Guidelines for Laws and Regulations of Trade Secrets explain regulations and trade secrets based on laws such as the Chinese Civil Code, China's Anti-Unfair Competition Law, and Foreign Investment Law, providing legal support and guidance for enterprises to protect their trade secrets.