April 26 marks the 2022 World Intellectual Property Day, which is themed “IP and Youth: Innovating for a Better Future.” The Canton Fair has been implementing IP protection measures since 1997, and as a pioneer and model of IP protection in China’s exhibition and convention industry, the Canton Fair has been conveying China’s firm attitude toward encouraging innovation and protecting IP rights to the world.

“In recent years, driven by innovation, Chinese products continue to expand in the international market, and Chinese companies are emphasizing more on IP rights protection, they’re counting on new technologies and products to gain competitive advantages internationally. As a hub of IP rights, it’s of great significance for the Fair to guarantee the protection.” said Quandong Liu, Deputy Director General of Foreign Affairs Office of Canton Fair.

The 131^st Canton Fair has taken the following measures to safeguard IP rights:

• Strengthen analysis and judgment to achieve advanced planning: as the trade show is hosted virtually, it requires survey and analysis of new trends in IP rights protection in advance to identify the key tasks and bottleneck problems, it’s crucial to tackle the key points and difficulties and work on the solutions
• Strengthen pre-exhibition investigation to lower the risk of infringement: The Canton Fair conducts strict IP investigations before the opening of the exhibition and publishes alerts for exhibitors as references to reduce the risk of infringement.
• Strengthen process optimization and improve case handling efficiency: the Canton Fair adopts the “online+offline” model to process IP disputes and complaints, improving processing efficiency to ensure fair resolution of disputes and maintain trading order.

At the 131^st Canton Fair, the Auratic ceramic company from Shenzhen is highlighting a series of new ceramic creations that empowers traditional culture with technology. Li Na, CAO of the company, noted that plagiarizing takes much less time and cost in the ceramic industry, and smaller companies or workshops are making profits from copying the designs.

“But from my years of experience at the Canton Fair, the trade show has improved our awareness and capability through advocating the importance of IP right protection and training, now we’ve registered 519 trademarks (including 400 in China and 119 abroad) and have 34 patents for invention, 15 patents for utility models, 282 design patents and 951 registrations of copyright works,” said Li.

Protecting IP rights and encouraging independent innovation are key for Chinese products to succeed in the international market, and Canton Fair has been optimizing its IP rights information platform and providing comprehensive services in protecting IP rights for the exhibitors.

Visit https://www.cantonfair.org.cn/en-US/register/index#/foreign-email for more opportunities.

SOURCE Canton Fair