Customizing IP protection strategies for China

When answering questions in relation to intellectual property (IP), the author found that most IP holders were scrambling for immediate solutions against IP infringements and seeking advice on how to confirm and authorize their IP ownership. The least asked question, however, was how to figure out effective strategies of IP protection in China.

Likewise, with a human being, acute illness is the most critical and pressing health problem, but individual-based health plans and a comprehensive disease prevention system give you the most benefits with the least resources. With respect to IP protection, it seems that taking appropriate solutions on individual cases are the most urgent and important, but actually only customized strategies can provide long-standing and effective protection against potential infringements.

Importance of IP strategy

The importance of IP strategy does not necessarily mean that individual action plans are not important. These action plans, such as trademark & patent registration, crackdowns against counterfeits, and civil, administrative and criminal proceedings, are important as well. The sticking point, however, is that most IP infringements in China do not simply involve trademarks or patent disputes; instead they are much more sophisticated and complicated, and may also be entangled with domain names or corporate name infringements, and the infringers might exploit complex corporate structures to manipulate premeditated and co-ordinated attempts against legitimate IP holders.

Frank Liu is a partner in the Shanghai office of Jincheng Tongda & Neal