On September 12, the 2021 China Fashion IP Conference, co-sponsored by the China Trademark Association (CTA), the China Fashion Associate (CFA), and the China Fashion IP Protection Center, was held in Beijing. NTD IP Attorneys was invited to attend.
With a theme of the International Perspective of Fashion IP Protection, the conference focused on international IP protection. The senior IP managers from the well-known enterprises, the experts and the partners from the top IP agencies from home and abroad participated to give remarks on the international IP protection.
The conference introduced the overall development of IP protection in European Union, Japan and US, as well as the Chinese fashion enterprises’ IP strategies at overseas. The first Fashion IP Report was released, in which the deep analysis on the IP layouts of the CFA members, and the professional advises for solving the new challenges and problems occurred to the Chinese fashion brands. Nearly 200,000 people interacted with the conference online to offline.
Mr. Zhang Qinghui, General Secretary of CFA, said that the fashion IP protection was conducive to meet people’ s expectations for good life, promote the sustainable development of the fashion industry, and construct the innovative ecology.
Mr. Li Lingshen, Deputy President of the China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC) and President of the China Nonwovens and Industrial Textiles Association (CNITA) said that, in 2020, the design patents in the field of textiles accounted for 5.9% of the total number (a downtrend for the past five years). The CNIPA has been cultivating the demonstration enterprises with the advantages of IPRs starting from the year of 2013, in which 28 textile enterprises were listed, accounting for 2.9%. They improved their abilities of IP strategy management, the output, the international operation, and the risk control.
The first round of the remarks were themed on “IP Protection in EU, Japan, and US”. Ms. Helene Juramy, Specialist for Trade and IP of the Delegation of the European Union to China, introduced the copyright protection in European countries in the post-COVID-19 era. Mr. Eichi Yamamoto, IP Director of JETRO Beijing, introduced the legal system of IP protection in Japan, including the basic laws like the Trademark Act, the Design Act, the Anti-Unfair Competition Act, and the Copyright Act, which covered different protection scopes. Mr. Peng Ming, President of IP Forum of China-US Chamber of Commerce and President of INTA TOPC shared his views on the fashion IP protection in US.
The second round of the remarks were themed on “IP Strategy of Chinese Fashion Enterprises at Overseas”.
Moreover, the conference also released the 2021 Fashion IP Protection Report, on which Mr. Christopher Shen, Senior Partner of NTD, and Chairman of Academic Committee of China Trademark Association gave a deep interpretation.
The report released the important IP statistics of China, the overall development of IP work, the analysis of samples and the hot issues of the industry. A total of 147 CFA members submitted samples based on which the current fashion IP protection was analyzed. An index system with reference value will be constructed and tracked to study.
The report said that the large garment factories in China were occupied with the relatively complex IP systems, although different from the foreign famous brands in strategies and ways of IP protection. However, there is a big gap between the domestic brands and the foreign famous brands in the overseas IP layout. As the small and medium-sized garment factories have less awareness of IP protection than the large ones and the foreign brands, the China Fashion IP Protection Center has a more specific direction for its work in the future.
The 2021 China Fashion IP Conference also specified the orientation for developing the high-valued creations, and arose the new expectations and challenges for the development of Chinese fashion enterprises. In the future, the China Fashion IP Protection Center will invite more professional experts to share their experiences and answer questions to support the Chinese enterprises to go global.
