China’s notarization industry accelerates innovation to enhance IPR protection

Notarization, as a type of legal service, plays a key role in the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) by helping to authenticate their ownership, facilitate their transfer, and preserve evidence of infringements.

In a guideline on IPR protection released in November 2019, the Chinese government reiterated the importance of notarization in this regard.

However, with the internet emerging as a main venue for IPR infringements, how to preserve electronic evidence, which is more likely to be concealed, tapered and deleted, poses a huge challenge to traditional notarization technologies and services.

What's more, by taking advantage of such emerging technologies as time stamps and blockchains, a growing number of electronic evidence preservation companies have also started to challenge the traditional notarization industry.

Faced with these challenges, China's notarization industry chooses to accelerate its pace of innovation in order to gain an edge in the ever-growing market competition. 

Technological innovation

The industry has applied blockchain technology to the process of ownership authentication to strengthen the protection of original copyrights. It draws on the electronic evidence preservation technology to bring what used to be a laborious manual evidence preservation process online, allowing clients to handle the process on their own at any time and wherever they are. 

It has also built an influential online platform to promote integration of the internet with notarization. Hundreds of public notary offices are currently providing services on the platform.

Service innovation

By cooperating with law firms and IPR agencies, the industry has extended its services to the full process of IPR protection including launching infringement investigations, monitoring clues, collecting evidence, issuing notarization certificates, mediating disputes and helping clients prepare for litigation. 

With such an integrated service mode, Chinese public notary offices have, so far, participated in the handling of tens of thousands of IPR infringement cases involving audio and video materials, texts and images, online shopping platforms and brick-and-mortar stores.

New service modes 

The industry has also been playing an active role in IPR trading by providing such services as identity and ownership verification, trading risk examination and fund drawings. It has successfully embedded its online services into the process of trademark trading, meeting clients' demand for convenience. 

The industry has also summarized and standardized these new practices to formulate new rules on electronic notarization.