IP Protection

On IP protection side, we have established a practice where we have 3 layers of protection for our participating companies: 

• legal protection: we have 3 partners on this,

  i) a prominent U.S. law firm with a Chinese office established 20+ year,

  ii) a Chinese law firm well versed on legal execution,

  iii) Suzhou IP Center

• administrative protection: CFDA protection and local gov. protection .

• market protection

IP category in China 

Every companies need file their copyrights, patents, and trademarks before access into China, their IP have no formal protection in a new market. Companies should register (or record) eligible IP in China as early as possible. Companies should also understand the full range of IP for which they might file, including multiple types of patents (utility model, design, and invention), as well as trademarks and copyrights.

Patents:

Companies should file applications with the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) for IP that they view as valuable to their business for both core and fringe technologies. Companies should ensure that their patents are properly translated before filing. Filing can be done directly with SIPO or via international patent arrangements such as the Patent Cooperation Treaty. 

Trademarks:

Companies should broadly register their core trademarks with the China Trademark Office, including the English name, Chinese character name, and Chinese pinyin name for core brands with the China Trademark Office. When filing, companies should carefully select the product categories and sub-categories in which to file, and check China’s online trademark database for similar trademarks filed by competitors and infringers, including marks filed in categories outside a company’s core products. Many companies have experienced challenges in which a local competitor registers a very similar trademark in a different product category, a practice allowed under the Trademark Law. 

Copyrights:

Though registration is not required, entities should consider registering their works with the National Copyright Administration, since registration provides a public record and can serve as useful evidence in copyright disputes.