WIPO Director General Daren Tang (middle) visits the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Shanghai Service. [Photo/WeChat account: Shanghai_IPA]

World Intellectual Property Organization Director General Daren Tang visited the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Shanghai Service on Dec 10 – praising its achievements and its role in the global intellectual property, or IP ecosystem.

Tang, who was accompanied by WIPO Deputy Director General Wang Binying and other officials, urged the Shanghai Service to focus on IP cases with international influence and frontier technologies, as well as to serve the IP needs of both big and small companies.

The WIPO head also called for closer cooperation between the Shanghai Service and Chinese courts and IP departments and pledged that his organization would provide better global IP services for various stakeholders in China.

Later in the day, Tang talked about the Shanghai Service at the 20th Shanghai International Intellectual Property Forum. He said WIPO was working hard to strengthen its IP arbitration and mediation services and ensure that enterprises had a wide range of choices in resolving IP disputes.

Tang said WIPO had been the first international organization to engage in foreign-related IP dispute arbitration and mediation services in China for the past four years – and signed an important cooperation agreement with the Shanghai High People's Court two years ago.

The WIPO chief said his body's cooperation with local courts in China had expanded to Fujian, Hainan and Guangdong provinces. What's more, it has handled nearly 100 mediation cases to date, including some that involved co-ownership of IP between leading international companies.

Shanghai Service Director Lv Guoqiang said it would meet Tang's requirements and provide more professional and efficient foreign-related IP arbitration and mediation services for various types of IP disputes in China.