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On September 22, Deng Youman, director general of the Intellectual Property Office of Guangzhou Municipality (Guangzhou IP Office) and his team visited North America Intellectual Property Corp. (NAIP) in Taiwan, to exchange experience on cross-strait IP issues. Winston Hsu, CEO of NAIP welcomed director Deng and shared his opinions on Taiwan’s IP environment.
Deng Youman (front row, third from the right) and Winston Hsu (front row, third from the left) exchange their experiences of handling IP matters across the straits; Photo by: Anita Li
The Guangzhou IP Office operates under the Guangdong Intellectual Property Office and is managed by The People`s Government of Guangzhou Municipality. Deng stated that the major tasks of the office are to promote the development of IP and protect the IP rights owners.
How Can This Task Be Achieved?
As mentioned previously in the article “China to Improve Administrative Protection Against Patent Infringement”, published in IP Observer Issue 2, “administrative protection” against patent infringement is a special measure introduced in China to protect the IP owners, and one of the Guangzhou IP Office’s responsibilities is to implement administrative enforcement.
Deng stated that Guangzhou has achieved the best performance in administrative protect against patent infringement nationwide, and cited some of the indicators that suggest this is the case.
There are only three IP courts in China, one of which is located in Guangzhou (the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court). This suggests that IP is a priority for the city. In addition to this, the office attends many of the large-scale trade shows and electronics shows that are hosted in Guangzhou every year in order to promote the protection of IP, and ensure that there is no infringement. With improvements to IP protections, the number of patent applications in Guangzhou had continued to grow (See Table 1). There have already been 338 enterprises in Guangzhou to be approved as meeting the national standards for “Enterprise Intellectual Property Management Regulations”, as of the end of August 2017. This figure far exceeds the target set by Guangdong Province (80 enterprises), and has rocketed Guangzhou to the No. 1 ranking in the province.
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Photo by Tommy Tang
As can be observed from Table 1, from 2015 to 2016, there was a 56% increase in patent applications, while the seventh month period from January to July 2017 showed a 30% increase year on year. Deng stated that the rise in applications by individuals and enterprises alike shows the increasing confidence in the IP environment in the city.
Table 1. Number of Patent Applications in Guangzhou Municipality from 2015~2017
Items |
2015 (The Entire Year) |
2016 (The Entire Year) |
2015 (1-7) |
2016 (1-7) |
2017 (1-7) |
Invention Patent |
20087 |
31850 |
9276 |
15922 |
19538 |
Utility Model |
24723 |
41472 |
11512 |
22030 |
30384 |
Design Patent |
18501 |
25748 |
8645 |
12608 |
16032 |
Total |
63366 |
99070 |
29533 |
50470 |
65954 |
Source: Intellectual Property Office of Guangzhou Municipality; Table by Anita Li
Deng also expressed curiosity as to Taiwan’s IP environment. Hsu suggested that Taiwan was a relatively small market, hence the low number of Chinese companies applying for patents in Taiwan. He stated that it is really only large-scale Chinese firms, such as Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei, and ZTE that have made significant investments in Taiwanese patents. Hsu added that even Taiwanese companies are mainly focused on applying for patents in overseas markets, such as the US and European countries, and that NAIP has assisted them in this.
Deng stated that Guangzhou is a welcoming environment for IP law practices, and suggested that Taiwanese patent firms should consider the city as a possible location for a China branch.
Ten Major Tasks of the Intellectual Property Office of Guangzhou Municipality |
(1) Implementing laws, regulations, provisions, guidelines and policies issued by the central, provincial and municipal governments concerning intellectual property rights and drafting and organizing the implementation of relevant local laws, regulations and policies concerning intellectual property rights.
(2) Organizing research on the major problems facing development strategies and other aspects of intellectual property rights, coordinating and facilitating the protection of intellectual property rights and the establishment of an innovation system.
(3) Coordinating foreign affairs concerning intellectual property rights, taking responsibility for cooperation and exchange on intellectual property rights with foreign countries, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), the Macao SAR and Taiwan.
(4) Coordinating and administering the work of the municipality concerning intellectual property rights, coordinating important policy issues in the implementation and enforcement of the laws on intellectual property rights and administering and supervising the transformation of intellectual property and patents into capital.
(5) Publicizing and disseminating relevant laws and regulations concerning intellectual property rights, promoting education and training and standardizing intermediary services involving intellectual property rights.
(6) Formulating medium and long-term development plans for patent work, planning a patent information network for the municipality and facilitating the uptake of patent information services in the municipality.
(7) Enforcing patent laws and regulations, settling patent disputes and investigating and penalizing those who apply for or hold patents under false pretenses in accordance with law.
(8) Taking charge of the standardization and administration of the patent market, giving instructions to patent intermediary agencies and on patent licensing trade deals, guiding the patent-related operations of enterprises and public institutions, administering and supervising patent development funds, and organizing the implementation of key patent technologies.
(9) Administering the patent statistics research of the municipality and conducting preliminary examinations on the establishment of patent agencies and patent asset appraisal institutes.
(10) Undertaking other tasks assigned by the municipal government and intellectual property departments at higher levels. |
Source: Intellectual Property Office of Guangzhou Municipality
| Author: |
Anita Li |
| Current Post: |
Chief Editor, NAIP Newsletter |
| Education: |
MA Journalism, China Culture University (Taiwan) |
| Prior Posts: |
Chief Editor, Solid State Technology -Taiwan
Chief Editor, CompuTrade International
Overseas Correspondent, Dempa Shinbun |
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