Li Chao, political officer of Intellectual Property Criminal Investigation Task Force, is giving a detailed introduction of IP protection in Changsha.

Changsha, capital of Hunan Province, is known as the hub of construction machinery. With the equipment and manufacturing industry of construction machinery at its development core, Changsha in recent years has vigorously developed strategic and emerging industries including intelligent manufacturing, intelligent driving, and intelligent terminals, forming a massive portfolio of more than 9,000 high-value patents.

Fitting own inherent need of development, Changsha strives to build up a grand scheme of IPR protection, having established specialized authorities in Changsha Intellectual Property Administration, Changsha Intellectual Property Court, Intellectual Property Criminal Investigation Task Force under Changsha Public Security Bureau, Intellectual Property Prosecution Bureau under Changsha People's Procuratorate, Intellectual Property Arbitration Panel under Changsha Arbitration Commission. As of now, Changsha has woven a full-link network of IPR protection.

"Changsha Intellectual Property Court has been set up to deal with patent and other technical cases in the entire Hunan Province on top of regular IPR appeals in Changsha," said Fan Dengfeng, vice president of Changsha Intermediate People's Court and presiding judge of Changsha Intellectual Property Court. He stressed that the Court, established in March 2018, is the only judicial authority with jurisdiction over patent and other technical cases in Hunan Province.

Faced with expanded judicial jurisdiction, inundation of IPR cases and users'/public's demand of quicker resolution of cases, the Court has played its best card—separating the complicated and simple ones. For cases belonging to a series of cases that have been resolved, or trademark and copyright cases with simple facts and disputes, the Court usually sets up a quick response force. For more sophisticated, technical cases, the Court dedicates selected judges with detailed attention to text drafting, ensuring quality and efficiency of difficult and complex IP cases.

"Since then, the number of new cases handled by the Court remains high. In the past three years, the Court has tried more than 19,000 civil cases," said Fan. The Court strived to strengthen protection of technological achievements in core technologies and cutting-edge fields through trying patent and trademark cases, which has helped cultivate a business-friendly environment and enhance the credibility and influence of IPR judicial protection.

"Since 2019, Changsha Public Security Bureau has carried out several specialized campaigns and cracked down on a number of influential IPR crime cases to defend the rights and interests of more than 80 companies," said Li Chao, political officer of Intellectual Property Criminal Investigation Task Force.

Since 2019, the Task Force, together with the county (city) public security bureaus, has made a comprehensive survey of key enterprises in Changsha, and conducted inter-agency consultation with IP protection problems, which has efficiently solved more than 60 such problems. In addition, the Task Force also has cracked down on a series of crimes, and achieved the deterent effect against potential offenders and safeguarded IPRs.

"In 2019, Changsha promoted an IPR administrative law enforcement reform to centralize administrative enforcement of trademarks, patents and geographical indications, and deployed administrative enforcement teams to the frontline, carried out specialized law enforcement campaigns targeting key industries with high occurrence of infringements by adopting a work model that combines daily enforcement inspections with special campaigns, which have effectively curbed illegal infringements," said Sun Jin, director of Changsha Intellectual Property Administration.

Strict IP protection system will benefit the people. Tomoyo Oda, IP director of Toyota (China), presented the banner written "fair enforcement, efficient handling" to a local authority and gave Changsha's IP protection work a thumb.

Complicated IP protection work requires all departments to work together. Changsha People's Procuratorate takes the lead in setting up an IP prosecution bureau among provincial capitals nationwide, pioneering a case-handling model of combining criminal, civil and administrative prosecution and integrating arrest, prosecution, supervision and prevention functions.  In addition, Changsha has begun to see results in resolving IP disputes by non-litigation agencies.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Source:http://www.iprchn.com/