In response to the growing number of British brands making their debut in Douyin E-commerce market, the China-Britain Business Council (CBBC) held an IP roundtable with Douyin E-commerce Intellectual Property (IP) Team on Thursday, 21 March in Shanghai.

It is the first CBBC IP Series Meeting with Chinese e-commerce platforms this year. Key representatives from a wide range of member companies and IP Officials from UK IPO and the British Embassy attended the meeting.

Lynn Xu, Director of Membership and Events of CBBC, delivered the welcoming remarks, mentioning that CBBC has been keeping focused on providing a platform for an IP dialogue between CBBC members and Chinese e-commerce companies to support UK brands protecting their IPs in China. It is the first time to collaborate with Douyin E-commerce, which provides an opportunity to better understand platform’s brand protection mechanism.

At this roundtable, Miles Rees, Deputy Director of Enforcement, Intellectual Property Office UK attended the roundtable and delivered opening remarks during his visit to China. Miles expressed his positive view on the CBBC IP roundtable bringing e-commerce platforms and brands together to exchange ideas and to address issues effectively.

Shengzi Yang, Director of IP Protection of Douyin E-commerce, delivered a comprehensive presentation on IP Protection status and progress of Douyin E-commerce. The main takeaway was on understanding Douyin E-commerce IP Protection Platform (IPPRO) and key mechanism to the right owners.

During the discussion, members from various sectors including AkzoNobel, Burberry, Estee Lauder (Jo Malone), GTechniq, Hasbro, HFW, Holland & Barrett, SinoFaith IP Group and Unilever raised questions and exchanged experiences with Douyin E-commerce IP team. In addition, specific cases of external cooperation were also shared with right owners during the roundtable. Shengzi and his IP team took this opportunity explaining new measures of the platform and how it works on IP protection going forward.