130th Canton Fair Highlights Intellectual Property Protection Online and Offline

GUANGZHOU, China, Oct. 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The upcoming 130th China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) is scheduled to kick off on Oct.15. Considering potential situations brought by both online and offline exhibitions, the Canton Fair has applied multiple methods in response to possible intellectual property complaints and formulated emergency plans to promote intellectual property rights (IPR) protection, invigorate innovation of companies, and serve innovative development of foreign trade.

"The Canton Fair has always attached great importance to IPR protection. It began piloting intellectual property rights (IPR) protection in 1992," said Quandong Liu, Deputy Director General of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Canton Fair. "The 130^th Canton Fair has enhanced its intellectual property protection methods to ensure IPR protection in a high standard. The efforts aim to further its commitment to innovative international trade development and serve the new development paradigm."

Tailored approach for advanced intellectual property protection

The Canton Fair coordinates with its exhibitors, conducting intellectual property protection sessions as guidance for companies to conduct intellectual property checks. It also keeps regular updates of potential intellectual property risk as well as case studies on its website and official social media channels, helping exhibitors mitigate infringement risks.

As Canton Fair moves partially online this year, product information and promotional materials are presented through digital channels, which brings challenges and risks for intellectual properties. The Fair has launched a dedicated section on its official website especially for intellectual property protection and trade dispute settlements. The special webpage includes rules and regulations regarding handling intellectual property complaints at the Canton Fair, guidelines on Chinese intellectual property laws and regulations, as well as other useful links.

In addition, the Canton Fair also works with professionals from Intellectual Property Management Departments at all levels across China to provide on-site support for infringement judgements. Together with experts, the Canton Fair also ensures fair judgement by establishing dispute resolution decision-making groups and conducting reviews.

Online-offline mode to enable efficient complaint handling

The Canton Fair, with many exhibitions moving online from 2020, introduced an online-offline mode to further enhance intellectual property protection. With experts supporting infringement judging offline, the complaint can be received online.

As exhibitors showcasing products both online and offline this year, the Canton Fair has opened access for complaints against exhibition assets offline, while keeping online access for potential online infringements. Offline complaints can be received across the exhibition halls and it is also applying an updated case tracking system to ensure efficient handling of all complaints.

With ongoing efforts to establish a tradeshow-focused intellectual property dispute resolution mechanism, the Canton Fair now has created a comprehensive system that is formed to effectively prevent potential infringements during the exhibition. It is also Canton Fair's continuous endeavor to protect the international trade order with increasing awareness among companies on protecting intellectual properties, while encouraging companies to keep innovating and promoting industrial upgrading.

Visit https://www.cantonfair.org.cn/en for more information.