Intellectual property one-stop shop opens

Staff members of the Pudong Intellectual Property Bureau pose for a photograph after the bureau opened as a pilot scheme yesterday. — Xinhua

The first intellectual property bureau on China's mainland, dealing with all legal issues concerning brands, patents and copyright, opened yesterday in the Pudong New Area.

Up to now, these three areas have been handled by different bodies resulting in complexity and inconvenience, said officials, who hailed the Pudong Intellectual Property Bureau as a significant development in intellectual property administration in China.

"The administration of those three areas used to be the responsibility of different authorities, such as those relating to industry and commerce, market supervision and science," a city intellectual property official surnamed Ye explained. "Now these will all be handled by the bureau."

She said corporations — especially electronics businesses — need to deal with these issues in research and development projects.

The bureau, offering its services to businesses throughout Shanghai, will officially open on January 1 next year after the current pilot scheme.

Between January and September, 27,885 invention patent applications from Shanghai were submitted — up 2.4 percent on the same period last year. Of these, 8,557 were granted patents, an increase of 1.9 percent on the same period in 2013.

Invention patents accounted for 48 percent of applications, followed by applications for utility patents — items for daily use — on 41 percent and design patents at 11 percent.

Meanwhile, an intellectual property court in Shanghai is set to be launched soon, officials said.