The municipal government of Shanghai in East China held a news conference on April 27 to introduce the city's latest efforts in developing itself as an international highland, for the protection of intellectual property, or IP.

The 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25) for Shanghai set out new development goals for the city's IP sector – with the aim that by 2025, the number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 people should reach about 30.

Chen Qun, vice mayor of Shanghai, told the news conference that the aim was to support the high-quality economic and social development of the city with high-quality IP development.

The strategic outline of Shanghai's IP development in 2021-2025 will start to be implemented within the year. In the meantime, the city will continue to improve its system for IP policies and regulations, according to Chen.

He also pointed out that the existing IP protection system in Shanghai for strict, extensive, fast and equal protection will be further optimized.

The city will also strengthen its mechanisms for coordination between administrative law enforcement and judicial acts, administrative mediation and judicial confirmations, credit supervision, rights protection assistance and overseas dispute responses, among others.

In addition, Shanghai will improve its IP services, giving full play to the World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Shanghai Service – or the WIPO Shanghai Service.

It will accelerate the establishment of the China (Shanghai) Intellectual Property Protection Center and a unified online service platform for IP, Chen added.