The China-Britain Business Council (CBBC) participated in the 2022 China Fashion IP Conference on 12th September in Beijing. This conference was organised by the China Trademark Association (CTA), China Fashion Association (CFA) and China Fashion Intellectual Property Protection Centre. This year, the conference focussed on international protection of intellectual property and opportunities for wider collaboration.

With the development of international trade throughout the fashion industry, protection of intellectual property has become increasingly complicated and thus international cooperation is essential for international brands. 

CBBC has for many years now offered a dedicated programme of IP support and services for our members.  These have included close collaboration with government departments and bureaus including UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO), General Administration of China Customs (GACC), the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), e-commerce platforms such as Tmall, JD.com, Pinduoduo and Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) to name a few and wide range of our member companies. This has enabled CBBC to run an IPR Protection Accelerator, offer an IP Helpdesk to companies in need of practical guidance, publish insights and run a series of thematic events and roundtables. 

Ran Guo, Director, Consumer Economy, China shares her IP protection experience from working with a range of British companies at 2022 China Fashion IP Conference during China Fashion Week.

Highlights from the Conference

In 2021, China received a total of 9.45 million trademark registration applications, an increase of 1.1% year-on-year. Of these, 9.19 million applications came from Chinese companies, accounting for 97.3% of all applications. 258,000 trademark registration applications came from foreign-funded enterprises, accounting for 2.7% of all applications, an increase of 11.6% year-on-year.

In the same year, the UK IPO received 195,000 trademark registrations applications, up 54% year-on-year. UK exports of IP products to China have been growing steadily and reach £1.3 billion in 2020. The largest proportion of these is patent exports, accounting for about half of all IP exports. The other half comes from the creative industries, trademarks and design licenses.

CBBC Director Consumer Economy, Ran Guo presented on these trends concerning IP and trademark registration in China and shared case studies of how CBBC has supported UK businesses to safeguard their IP assets.

Hasbro, one of the world’s leading entertainment conglomerates and a member of CBBC were also given the opportunity to present at the conference, sharing their rich experience in brand management and protection through IP cooperation with leading international fashion brands. 

With a diverse portfolio of content covering toys, games, publishing, licensing consumer products, online gaming and emerging media, Hasbro has a well-established track record of successfully enhancing the value of their IPs and they shared they story in China with the conference attendees.

Jessica Qian, Hasbro Consumer Products, Greater China, joined the conference virtually.

How CBBC Can Support

Safeguarding a company’s intellectual property should be one of the first priorities when it comes to doing business in the Chinese market. Since 2014, CBBC has been providing intellectual property protection and enforcement support to British businesses both entering and growing in the China market. Whatever stage your business is at on your journey into China, we can support your business in the following areas：

• Understanding IP filing and licensing in China
• Mitigation against bad-faith trade mark practices
• Navigation of IP litigation and enforcement policies in China
• Defence and prevention against IP infringement on major Chinese E-commerce or social media platforms including Alibaba, JD.com, Pinduoduo, DHGate, Weixin, Suning, Weidian, Douyin / TikTok, Baidu and Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book)
• Settling domain name disputes

Customised legal and consultancy services referral support

Our unique position enables us to work closely on your behalf with Chinese partners, offering access to in-depth IP consulting services, expert guidance with navigation of online protection and offline enforcement; and cross-border protection. We also conduct research into IP policy and our work strives to reinforce commercial engagement and cooperation between the UK and China. 

Meanwhile, based on CBBC’s longstanding partnership and successful IP programmes with major Chinese stakeholders, we facilitate the Intellectual Property Rights protection of businesses by providing IPR protection measures for fast-track E-commerce and digital platforms, and having direct access to the IPR programmes led by authorities and industry associations.

By offering our members easy access to information and materials on Intellectual Property in China, we have summarised the IP related laws and regulations, complied case studies, formulated practical manuals, and other materials to form a comprehensive IP resource data base. This includes policy updates, research reports, case study analysis, IP legal and institutional frameworks, guides and toolkits.

Further Cooperation

For more information on CBBC's IP services, please click "Read more" below to learn more about our IPR Protection Accelerator Programme for CBBC members. If you are a British company seeking to access the China market or register your IP in China, please contact Kiran Patel, Senior Director, Commercial (China).