Recently, the National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) announced the first batch of excellent cases of intellectual property (IP) protection reform practices in key cities (regions). Shenzhen had 5 cases selected, ranking first among all cities nationwide.
The 5 selected excellent cases cover the entire IP protection chain including administrative protection, judicial protection, arbitration and mediation, and overseas protection. These cases involve all-round guidance for enterprises to respond to Section 337 investigations, full-chain trade secret protection, judicial protection of IP in the digital economy, IP arbitration, and IP procuratorial reform and innovation. They fully demonstrate the comprehensive strengthening of IP work in Shenzhen since the launch of the initiative to build a highland for IP protection.
In recent years, Shenzhen has advanced the construction of a national highland for IP protection with high standards, taking the lead in trials in aspects such as management systems, major projects, protection ecosystems, innovation elements, cross-border collaboration, and opening-up. The city has been selected as a pilot city for optimizing the business environment in the IP field and a comprehensive pilot for national IP financial ecology. The International Intellectual Property Academy, co-built by CNIPA and Peking University, has settled in Shenzhen. The city’s first national-level IP rapid protection center has been approved for construction and passed acceptance checks. Overseas IP protection workstations have been set up in Germany, Singapore, and Brazil. Solid steps have been taken in building the IP protection highland, with a series of new progress and achievements made.
Case 1: All-Round Guidance for Enterprises to Respond to Section 337 Investigations and Safeguard Their Overseas Legitimate Rights and Interests
Shenzhen has established a regular monitoring and early warning mechanism to timely notify the development of cases in key countries (regions) including Section 337 investigations. A targeted guidance and service mechanism has been put in place, with policies and measures issued, collaboration between municipal and district levels strengthened, and expert synergy enhanced to support enterprises in coping with international trade frictions. A systematic tracking and evaluation mechanism has been built to summarize typical cases of responding to Section 337 investigations, release typical cases of key enterprises winning preliminary rulings and practical guidelines for overseas protection, thereby improving enterprises’ capabilities in handling overseas disputes.
Case 2: Strengthening Full-Chain Trade Secret Protection to Escort the Development of Scientific and Technological Innovation
Shenzhen has strengthened the overall coordination of trade secret protection work, enhanced the connection between administrative law enforcement and criminal justice in trade secret cases, and built a multi-dimensional and comprehensive service system. An expert think tank has been established, and standard guidelines have been formulated and released. A full-chain protection service for foreign-related matters featuring “pre-event training + in-event monitoring + post-event response” has been set up. Illegal acts of infringing trade secrets have been severely cracked down on, administrative mediation has been used to resolve trade secret infringement disputes, the implementation of trade secret insurance has been promoted, and the level of trade secret protection has been further improved.
Case 3: Exploring and Improving IP Protection Rules for the Digital Economy to Build a Highland for the Development of the Digital Economy Industry
Shenzhen has established and improved a judicial protection working mechanism of “research and investigation — case demonstration — rule supply — mechanism innovation”. Implementation opinions on the judicial protection of IP in the digital economy have been issued, and a special judicial tribunal for data disputes has been set up to centrally hear IP disputes related to data. Efforts have been made to create high-quality cases, improve the digital evidence system, and build a full-process technical investigation support mechanism, promoting the in-depth integration of the improvement of judicial adjudication rules and the innovation of trial mechanisms for IP in the digital economy.
Case 4: Building the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) International Arbitration Center to Promote Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Cooperation in IP Protection
Based on the GBA International Arbitration Center, Shenzhen has actively promoted the alignment of IP protection rules and mechanisms in the GBA, strengthened the coordination between IP judicial work and arbitration, carried out cross-border IP dispute negotiation facilitation and mediation work, and established the “Shenzhen mediation + Hong Kong arbitration” and “Hong Kong mediation + Shenzhen arbitration” models. Giving play to the talent advantages of “one country, two systems, three legal jurisdictions”, the city has attracted legal and business professionals from Hong Kong and Macao to participate in the handling of arbitration cases, making useful explorations for promoting Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao cooperation in the IP field and establishing a high-level protection system.
Case 5: Further Promoting IP Procuratorial Reform and Innovation to Create a New Engine for the High-Quality Development of IP Procuratorial Work
Shenzhen has carried out reform and innovation in the centralized and unified exercise of IP procuratorial functions, established a “synchronized reporting and synchronized guidance” system, and promoted the integration of procuratorial performance. Guided by improving the evidence system, the city has promoted the coordination and unification of case standards. Supported by the technical investigator system, it has improved the quality and efficiency of handling IP procuratorial cases. Aiming at solving problems such as similar cases, protection guidelines in fields such as trade secrets, copyright protection, and electronic products have been issued to boost the high-quality development of enterprises.
