A news conference on IP development in the YRD region is held in Hefei, capital of Anhui province. [Photo/WeChat account: Shanghai-IPA]

The Yangtze River Delta region – located in East China – has always been regarded as being at the forefront of China's reform and opening up and with the integrated development of the YRD region becoming a national strategy, the role of the region in its national economic and social development is increasingly prominent.

A news conference on intellectual property or IP development in the YRD region was recently held in Hefei, capital of Anhui province – part of the YRD region. 

Officials from the IP administrations of Shanghai city and Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces attended the conference and issued the 2020 White Paper on the Development and Protection of Intellectual Property.

Combined with the innovative resources of the different regions, the IP work in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui reportedly has a different emphasis and advantages.

In Shanghai, according to Rui Wenbiao – director general of the Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration, or SIPA – the Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Intellectual Property Protection came into effect on March 1. This provided a legal guarantee for the comprehensive protection of IP in the city.

"In October last year, Shanghai handled the first judicial confirmation of patent administrative mediation. In this case, the parties reached a settlement agreement under the auspices of SIPA, which was confirmed by the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, giving the settlement agreement enforcement power," Rui said.

SIPA and the Shanghai High People's Court signed the Implementation Measures on the Pilot Work of the Judicial Confirmation Procedure for the Administrative Mediation Agreement of Intellectual Property Disputes in Shanghai. In addition, more measures and methods to strengthen the connection between IP administrative law enforcement and judicial departments are being formulated, Rui added.

Over the years, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui have continued to deepen their cooperation in IP development and protection.

At the news conference, the IP administrations of the four regions jointly signed an agreement to integrate the superior resources of geographical indications in the YRD region. They will carry out substantive regional exchanges and cooperation in the fields of the cultivation, publicity, protection, market construction and supervision of geographical indications.

"We expect that the four places will continue to explore concrete ways of cooperation, effective cooperation mechanisms and operational cooperation projects on IP in the future," Rui said.