The Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce, the EU-China Business Association and the China IP SME Helpdesk organized an exclusive webinar focused on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in China on 1 July 2025.
Ms. Alessandra Capriglia, Project Manager, China IP SME Helpdesk, introduced the Helpdesk, an EU-funded initiative, providing free initial advice to European SMEs on the protection, management, and enforcement of intellectual property in China, covering the four jurisdictions of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, each of them with a different IP system. Since 2008, the Helpdesk has helped hundreds of thousands of SMEs. In terms of services, the helpline is the most important service and there is an email address that you can write to, sending all your inquiries, your questions about IP, and the Helpdesk will respond within three working days in a very confidential way. In case you have very concrete questions about your IP strategy in China, you can also schedule a one-on-one consultation session with our IP business advisor. All the Helpdesk's services are free of charge. The Helpdesk regularly uploads webinars and informative videos on its YouTube channel.
Ms. Gwenn Sonck, Executive Director, Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce and EU-China Business Association, introduced both organizations and welcomed the participants to the 12th joint webinar with the China IP SME Helpdesk. It is very important that companies doing business with China also have an IP strategy included in their China business plan, and that is why every year we continue to have several sessions on IP. China has rapidly established itself as a global leader in innovation, driving progress across some of the most transformative sectors of our time, and it now leads the world in patent filings, reflecting a deep and strategic investment in IP. In 2024, China ranked on the 11th place of the Global Innovation Index published by the World Property Organization, while in 2010, China was on the 43rd place. So the speed of innovation in China is really remarkable, and many of our companies are in China for its innovation drive. They see China as a fitness center where you continuously need to stay fit as the Chinese competition is very fierce. So our companies really need to be part of this ecosystem to be able to grow on the local market, so in China, for China, but also to go global together.
Mr. Toby Mak, IP expert of the China IP SME Helpdesk, gave a presentation on Enforcement of IP in China. He is a registered Chinese patent attorney working for the Chinese IP firm Tee & Howe Intellectual Property Attorneys and doing a lot of work for two IP organizations: the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), and the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO). He was born and educated in Hong Kong. Tee & Howe has about 230 people, including 82 patent attorneys and 15 trademark attorneys, most of them based in Beijing.
Unlike most other jurisdictions, in China, IP could be enforced by the judiciary and the administration through civil and administrative cases. Enforcement of IP in China is done under the bifurcated case system, with separate infringement and validity trials. In an infringement case, it will only be determined whether there was infringement of IP and the validity of the IP would be tried separately. Invalidation is done at the CNIPA, which now handles all the trademark and patents in China, while the infringement is either handled in the courts or by local administrations.
We have to note is that the courts are overwhelmed, and they have a high tendency to push cases away. The Beijing IP Court is one of the busiest IP courts in China, receiving about 2,000 cases a year with about 100 judges. Most of the cases have to be tried by three judges, which explains why courts have a high tendency to push cases away. They require very strict formalities to be complied with in order for them to take your case. If you have not prepared your documents and evidence well, they will not accept your case. If you do not use someone who has done it before, you would find your cases being rejected by the courts very easily. On the other hand, the administration is eager to handle patent infringement cases. Judicial patent cases are expensive, costing about CNY1.5 million. Trademark or design cases would be a lot cheaper at about CNY0.5 million. The courts could grant injunctive relief and damage awards, but cases take about 9 to 16 months, slower than administrative action in China, but faster than in the U.S., where it could take about three to five years to get the first decision. The administration can provide the patentee only injunction relief and will not be able to provide any damage awards, even though they could impose fines on the infringer. The result of the administrative cases could be used later in civil action to claim damage awards. It is very fast, particularly compared to the court actions. It takes only about three months to get a decision.
What is the infringement environment in China. Most Chinese infringers are lazy, cheap, and not well advised. Infringers tend to produce products that look exactly the same as the original one, but do not work well. In some cases, these products may not even work at all. Which IP tools do we need in such an environment, dealing with such lazy and cheap infringers? Registered IP is needed, as non-registered IP is difficult to enforce. This is the most important to remember. If you want to be protected, you need registered IP.
What types of intellectual property are available in China to protect you? These include trademark, copyright, design, utility model, and invention patents. The time needed for you to get the registered IP is not long for trademarks, copyrights, designs, and utility models, but for invention patents, it could be a lot longer. However, depending on whether the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) is used, invention patents could also be granted relatively quickly. Chinese Customs can stop exports of infringed goods if the IP is registered. Customs in other parts of the world stop infringing goods from coming into their respective jurisdictions, but in China, the Chinese customs is there to stop the infringing goods from getting out. Mr. Mak has done a study about 10 years ago, showing that 97.5% of goods seized by Chinese Customs were trying to get out of China. Utility models in China can also be granted quickly but compared to trademark, copyright and design, are more expensive and difficult to enforce. You will need to talk to your patent attorney because this is something that could be quite complex. Enforcement relies on a patentability evaluation report to which the patentee has no way to respond. Once the report is out saying the utility model is not good due to whatever reason, the patentee is stuck. The recent trend is that utility models seem to be discouraged by the Chinese government. The number of utility models granted and filed in China has been dropping in the last three years.
Invention patents, on the other hand, they tend to take time to be granted, although there are ways to accelerate the process. An invention patent is equivalent to a European patent. Compared to the trademark, copyright, design, and utility model, they are more expensive and difficult to enforce, and more difficult to get around if the patent specification was well-drafted. However, unlike utility models, the enforcement of invention patents do not require a patentability evaluation report, because such patents have gone through what we call substantive examination. Infringement cases would generally be suspended if the invalidation petition is accepted.
Administrative IP enforcement has been only available to trademark, copyright, and designs. Patents, utility models, and invention patents have been accepted for less than 18 months. Since local administrations are competing for business with the courts, and this is relatively new, practically none of them have any experience in dealing with such cases. But they could be accepted relatively easily, and the progress would be very fast. However, strong local protectionism does exist. If you are a foreign patentee, then you are bound to file the case where the infringer resides, and the infringer tend to be a significant taxpayer in that jurisdiction. So the administrations tend to be more protective of local infringers. To file such enforcement cases, you need to notarize and certify power of attorney, but legalization is no longer required. A certificate of good standing issued by the patentee's local company registry is required as well as evidence of infringement notarized by a Chinese notary. Once accepted, the hearing is arranged in four to five weeks and the case decided within three months from the date of acceptance by the local administration. Then it is still possible to file a civil case in the courts in a place distant from the residence of the infringer. There are now specialized IP courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
The Chinese IP system is pretty friendly to right holders, who win about 75% of the time. The infringers are lazy, but it requires the right holders to actually spend the resources, the time and the effort to go after the infringers.
A Q&A session concluded the webinar.
