Shanghai's first technology-oriented trade fair employed diverse measures and services to protect the intellectual property rights of participants, said local officials.

Watchdogs included Chinese and overseas IP experts, corporate representatives, delegations from government agencies, the State Intellectual Property Office and the World Intellectual Property Organization.

According to organizers, the efforts paid dividends with zero IP complaints filed during the China Shanghai International Technology Fair, a four-day event to mark the creation of a permanent center of technology exchanges.

Under the theme of innovation-driven development, intellectual property protection and promoting trade in technology, the fair that started on May 8 attracted more than 28,000 professionals from 36 countries and regions.

As a forerunner in hosting a technology fair, Shanghai will strive to improve its IP environment and deepen cooperation with international companies and organizations, said Han Zheng, Party chief of the municipality.

The local intellectual property authority has formulated an IP protection program and issued patent dispute processing rules in line with conditions at the technology fair.

It will also establish long-term cooperation with the organizing committee to provide follow-up IP services to deals reached during the event.

In addition, the organizing committee set up an IP service station in the exhibition center for local administrative enforcement officials, IP specialists and volunteers.

They received more than 100 requests for consultation on laws and regulations, as well as patent searches, applications, licensing and transfers.

Most requests were for consultation on patent searches.

Eighteen patents were sold and agreements were reached on the rights to 165 others during the event.

Unlike conventional commodity trading, the 18 items sold "were all in the form of IP transactions with complete and standard legal formalities, which shows China's new image on IP protection worldwide", said a spokesman of the organizing committee.

Ulf Stremmel, president of the German Technologies Center, told Science and Technology Daily that many German companies with core technologies "have had an odd sense of ambivalence towards Chinese markets for a long time, yearning for them but also with fear due to the lack of confidence in effective IP protection in the country".

The Shanghai fair will change that perception, he said. Technical transactions between the two sides are expected to improve in both number and scale, he continued.

An Intellectual Property Protection Day was also held during the event that included an IP protection conference, development briefing session and a Shanghai brand development forum.

haonan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 05/15/2013 page17)