The creation, protection and use of intellectual property rights are closely related to the development of enterprises. On January 6th, Nantong Municipal Market Supervision Bureau (Nantong Municipal Intellectual Property Office), Nantong Municipal Foreign Affairs Office, Nantong Municipal Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, and Nantong Municipal Friendship Association jointly established the Nantong "Intellectual Property--Overseas Chinese Affairs" Intellectual Property Overseas Service Center. It will further integrate domestic and foreign resources to strengthen and support Nantong’s enterprises to go abroad, assist the transformation of overseas Chinese enterprises, and enhance the international competitiveness of Nantong’s industry and its competitiveness in the international industrial system. It is reported that this is also China's first Intellectual Property Overseas Service Center.
Nantong is one of the first fourteen coastal port cities in China to open globally. There are more than 100,000 people engaged in overseas business activities throughout the year, and the total import and export volume ranks fourth in Jiangsu Province. As the global trade environment continues to change and trade frictions continue to escalate, the demand for foreign-related intellectual property protection has reached an unprecedented new level.
The Intellectual Property Rights Overseas Protection Center, led by Nantong Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, fully integrates the resources of Market Supervision, Foreign Affairs, Overseas Chinese Affairs, and Friendship Associations. It is the first in China to establish the "Intellectual Property-Overseas Chinese Affairs" Intellectual Property Overseas Service Center, dedicated to providing promotion and development, assistance services, and rights protection cooperation for Nantong’s enterprises and overseas Chinese businesses intellectual property development.
In terms of promotion and development, the Center will actively guide Nantong’s enterprises and overseas Chinese businesses to strengthen the overseas distribution plan of intellectual property rights, expand the overseas distribution channels of trademarks and brands, and guide enterprises to extend to the high-end of the global value chain; in terms of assistance services, establish "One Belt and One Road" national intellectual property rights law database, overseas intellectual property rights protection expert database, and intellectual property international registration and rights protection information database, which provide early warning assistance services such as cybersquatting, infringement and counterfeiting for Nantong enterprises. In terms of rights protection cooperation, relying on the advantageous resources of Overseas Service Center, it integrated with Nantong Foreign Affairs Office, Nantong Municipal Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs, Nantong Municipal Friendship Association, and Overseas Associations and Chambers of Commerce, strengthened communication and docking with Chinese Embassies and Consulates abroad and the Consular Protection Center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It has coordinated the implementation of consular protection services, and protected the intellectual property of enterprises and overseas Chinese businesses going global.
