Beijing to set up two intellectual property protection centers

Beijing will establish two intellectual property protection centers this year, according to the information office of the municipal government.

The centers are expected to shorten the patent review cycle from one year to six months.

They will mainly serve the sectors of new information technology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new materials and biomedicine, said Pan Xinsheng, deputy director of the Beijing intellectual property office.

In 2017, Beijing received 186,000 patent applications and 107,000 patent authorizations, up 4.75 percent and 4.5 percent respectively.

In the past five years, 192,000 cases of patent infringement and counterfeiting were investigated and punished in China, as well as 173,000 cases of trademark infringement and counterfeiting.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)