Four new intellectual property protection workstations have been unveiled in Pingshan. Photos from Pingshan Release

Four new intellectual property (IP) protection workstations were launched April 23 in Pingshan District, namely Shenzhen Biomedicine Innovations Industrial Park IP Protection Workstation, Pingshan Innovation Plaza IP Protection Workstation, Pingshan New Energy Automobile Industrial Park IP Protection Workstation, and Shenzhen Pingshan Individual and Private Enterprise Association IP Protection Workstation.

The workstations were established by industry associations, chambers of commerce, industrial parks, and commodity trading market managers. They offer a range of comprehensive services for enterprises and the public in Pingshan, including information retrieval, legal consultation, rights protection assistance, and dispute resolution, covering areas such as patents, trademarks, and copyrights. Currently there are five such workstations in Pingshan.

The workstations were unveiled during Pingshan’s 2024 IP Promotion Week, coinciding with the release of the 2023 Pingshan IP Whitepaper. The whitepaper shows that in 2023, Pingshan prioritized high-quality development, leveraging IP’s significant role in driving technological innovation.

The 2023 Pingshan Intellectual Property Whitepaper has been released.

According to the whitepaper, Pingshan inaugurated the first national-level new energy vehicle industry IP operation center in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in 2023. Additionally, four companies snatched the 24th WIPO-CNIPA Award last year. The district also ranked second in Shenzhen for Patent Cooperation Treaty application growth rate, while maintaining an A-level rating for IP right administrative protection assessment in the city for two consecutive years. The whitepaper also featured illustrative cases, including the first computer software copyright infringement case in the intelligent vehicle industry in the district.

At an IP training session for enterprises at the Pingshan Innovation Plaza on April 23, representatives from the Pingshan District People’s Procuratorate and the Science and Technology Innovation Bureau of Pingshan District elaborated on IP crimes in enterprises, Pingshan’s pledge financing business and funding policies. Staffers from Mindray, the recipient of the 24th WIPO-CNIPA Award, also conducted training at the event.

Enterprise representatives at a training session during Pingshan’s 2024 Intellectual Property Promotion Week.

In February 2024, Pingshan rolled out several measures to fuel high-quality development in science and technology innovation. Notably, science and technology small and medium-sized enterprises as well as national high-tech enterprises in the district can receive subsidies of up to 70% of their actual comprehensive financing costs when securing loans through IP pledge or securitization; the annual cumulative maximum subsidy is capped at 2 million yuan, effectively addressing the challenge of costly financing faced by these companies.

Looking ahead, Pingshan is committed to further promoting these policies among enterprises to bolster their awareness and capabilities in IP protection, leveraging IP to drive new quality productive force development.