In the year 2009 Shanghai Municipality continued to carry out the National Intellectual Property Strategy, made further progress in the IPR protection campaign for World Expo 2010, and strengthened its work on intellectual property service, publicity, and talents training. Shanghai"s intellectual property course made new achievements in the year as its supporting, serving, guaranteeing, and leading functions to social and economic development were duly performed.

I.         Perfecting Policies and Measures to Further Improve the Ability on IPR Creating.

In 2009, the total number of patent applications in Shanghai reached 62,241, a growth of 17.8% over the year 2008, among which the number of invention patent applications was 22,012, growing by 23.5% and the number of PCT applications was 493, growing by 28.4%. The number of granted patents in Shanghai in 2009 reached 34,913, an increase of 42.7% over the previous year.

The number of applications for trademark registration was 41,882 in Shanghai in 2009, a growth of 1.8% over 2008, while authorized trademark registrations reached 35,984, an increase of 106.6%. The international trademark registrations (Madrid Agreement) amounted to 85. And 285 Shanghai Famous trademarks and 24 China Well-known Brands were newly recognized.

In 2009 Shanghai also made copyright registration for 2,217 pieces of works, which increased 41% over 2008; together with 5475 copyright registrations for computer software, an increase of 15.78%.

The applications for IC Layout Design in 2009 reached 74, which accounted for 20.96% of the national total. And the applications for new plant variety rights reached 23, an increase of 9.5 over the year 2008.

Shanghai Development and Reform Commission actively pushed forward the intellectual property work in the major industrial scientific and technological breakthrough projects which following the "Invigorating the City with Science and Education" Strategy, in the national-level projects for the industrial application of high technologies, and in the National Technology Centers in local enterprises, facilitating the IPR creation in the pillar industries.

Shanghai Municipal Economic and Informatization Commission, together with other government bodies, continued its effort on setting intellectual property work models, conferring licenses on the 4th batch of 20 local intellectual property model enterprises. It also chose another 20 local enterprises, including the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd., as the 5th batch of intellectual property model enterprises under cultivation. And the work for determination of patented new products was also continued.

Using the "Special Fund for Steady Growth of Foreign Trade" provided by the Ministry of Commerce, Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce supported local enterprises to develop a number of technologies and products with independent IPR and brands by catching up with the international technology development and making breakthroughs in scientific research, which continually improved the quality and returns of Shanghai"s export products.

The Municipal Education Commission, along with other government bodies, organized the 8th Shanghai Juvenile Science and Technology Festival and the 2nd Youth Innovation Summit. It also continued its selection of Shanghai Intellectual Property Model Schools and Experimental Schools. And 6 model schools and 6 experimental schools were awarded the honors in 2009.

Shanghai Science and Technology Commission issued a series of policies including “(Temporary) Determination and Management Measures for Products of Independent Innovation in Shanghai” in its effort to support the research of industrial technologies for intelligent power grid, to speed up the implementation of national technology special projects, to cultivate emerging strategic industries with independent IPR, and to facilitate the creation of intellectual property.

Shanghai Municipal Commission of Construction and Transportation improved its operation mechanism for technological innovation and followed the guidelines on intellectual property work in particular scientific research projects. In 2009 the Commission finished 11 major scientific research projects, and 11 other scientific research projects, while reaping 23 IPR achievements of various kinds.

Shanghai Municipal Commission of Agriculture stipulated “Several Regulations on the Management of Major Projects in Invigorating Agriculture through Science and Technology”, and put the major projects in Invigorating Agriculture through Science and Technology higher on its list of evaluation and approval, which brought a steady growth in the number of IPR applications in the agricultural system.

Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Health was active in selecting of the first batch of Intellectual Property Model Units in Public Health System and the second batch of Intellectual Property Experimental Units in Public Health System, giving full play to the leading, modeling, and radiating roles of model and experimental units, improving the overall ability to create, manage, protect, and utilize intellectual property in the public health system in Shanghai.

Shanghai Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission put its emphasis on advocating the indexing of intellectual property work in the performance check of SOE leaders. In addition, the "self-raised fund for R&D listed as part of the year"s cost" was counted as part of the profit reaped by the enterprise in the same period in order to encourage technological innovation in the enterprises.

Shanghai Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce organized a leading group and convened a promotion conference for the implementation of the national trademark strategy. It enhanced the recommendation of local famous brands by the survey to collect opinions on the drafting of Shanghai Famous Trademark Law, and by the training & identification of the 14th batch of local famous trademarks, in order to create a favorable development environment in which trademarks were duly respected and well protected.

Shanghai Copyright Bureau conducted a research into the statistics index system for the copyright industry, and basically completed the compilation of the Report on Shanghai"s Copyright Industry. The Bureau initiated the research project on the copyright agency service industry in Shanghai, in order to provide plans and measures facilitating development of the industry. The Bureau also pushed forward copyright trade and exchange by organizing enterprises to attend Beijing International Book Fair 2009 and Frankfurt Book Fair. By devising the incentive scheme of copyright trade, the Bureau handed out awards to units and persons with significant contributions to copyright trade.

Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration continued its patent modeling and experimental work, recognizing altogether 13 enterprises as Shanghai"s patent work model enterprises, 53 as patent work experimental enterprises, and 118 as patent work cultivation enterprises. The Administration facilitated the development of patent strategies of pillar products for 24 local enterprises. It also pushed forward the intellectual property work in Hi-Tech parks and zones, recognizing 4 of them, including Shanghai Zizhu Science Park, as the 2nd batch of Shanghai Intellectual Property Experimental Parks. With the approval of the State Intellectual Property Office of China, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park was awarded the title of "National Model Park of Intellectual Property Development", an honor higher than its former title of "National Experimental Park of Intellectual Property".

Shanghai Municipal Quality and Technical Inspection Bureau made effort to carry out the standardization of advanced manufacturing industries within the Hi-Tech sector as its focus, and promoted the experimental work in "Shanghai Hi-Tech Standardization Model Enterprises" in Xuhui District. The Bureau granted new approvals to 5 model projects, including Shanghai Mitsubishi Elevator.

Shanghai Food and Drug Administration supported the R&D of new medicine with the decrees in the newly-issued “Special Approval and Management Regulations on New Medicine Registration” and provided “green channels” simplified procedures with along-the-way service for the new drugs with IPR.

II.      Putting Greater Effort into Law Enforcement and Creating the Favorable Environment for Intellectual Property Development

Shanghai’s intellectual property work in 2009 was carried out in proper order with the theme of “Welcoming the World Expo”. To create a favorable environment for intellectual property protection, and to welcome the coming World Expo 2010, Shanghai Intellectual Property Joint Committee stipulated “Campaign Plan for IPR Protection of Shanghai World Expo”, identifying the 10 key tasks to be carried out from July 2009 to October 2010. The law enforcement organs citywide and the 18 Districts made corresponding action plans and launched large-scale regulation campaigns with enhanced law enforcement measures to crack down on illegal activities infringing IPR.

Shanghai Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce stipulated “Implementation Measures on the Protection of World Expo Trademarks”, specifying the general goals, priorities and measures of the World Expo trademarks protection. In 2009 Shanghai’s Industry and Commerce administrative branches prosecuted and investigated a total of 79 cases of IPR infringement on the World Expo Symbols.  In the meantime, concentrated law enforcement campaigns were organized in order to curb the IPR infringement in Shanghai’s circulating domain, such as clothing and small commodity markets and major business streets. Major efforts were put in to reduce illegal stalls, hawkers and peddlers selling infringing & pirated goods, mongers hoaxing customers, and sales of faked commodities in rented houses. To facilitate the identification of faked goods by basic-level industry and commerce administrative branches, and to better protect the rights of famous foreign brands, the Administration compiled and released the “Foreign Trademark Protection Contact List 2009”, containing 100 famous foreign brands from 16 countries. In 2009, a total of 17,000 person/times were dispatched into the inspection of 57,000 business bodies of various operations, prosecuting and investigating 2,773 trademark cases, of which 2,705 were trademark infringement cases, with fines totaling 21,252,900 RMB yuan. 2,150,000 articles of infringing commodities and illegal marks were uncovered and confiscated. 30 cases were handed over for criminal investigation, with 30 suspects involved.

Shanghai Copyright Bureau launched market regulation campaigns with the government bodies concerned, laying emphasis on places where the manufacture and sales of pirated products were concentrated. The Bureau carried out the Copyright Protection Environment Purification and City Safeguarding Project by inspecting and stemming pirated products at road entrances to Shanghai and packaging & shipping stations. It provided help to The Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination in the copyright licensing issues and copyright fees for the music used by the World Expo by stipulating “World Expo Copyright Protection Campaign Plan” and “Contingency Measures for the Early Warning of World Expo Copyright Incidents”. In addition, the Bureau cracked down on Internet copyright piracy and illegal computer software pre-installation, investigated and heard 25 cases of these two types, among which 14 cases were settled with administrative penalty, with the fines totaling over 40,000 RMB yuan.

Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration launched IPR law enforcement campaigns named "Thunderstorm" and "Sky Net", actively cracking down on patent pass-off and patent fraud activities. The Administration did well in patent dispute settlement, with 29 such cases settled in the year. In the meantime, IPR protection for exhibitions was strengthened, with 102 person/times dispatched into 29 major domestic and international exhibitions, and 168 patent disputes were solved on the spot.

Shanghai Police (Public Security Bureau) took the launch of the "Welcoming the World Expo, Safeguarding Shanghai" Regulation Campaign to play active roles in the crackdown on IPR crimes. 265 criminal cases of IPR infringement were uncovered, with 381 suspects captured, and illicit money and booty worth over 490 million RMB yuan were confiscated. The Economic Crime Investigation Corps of Shanghai Police took the lead in the "Hawkeye 2" campaign against registered trademark counterfeit crime with other government departments, and uncovered 18 criminal cases, captured 62 suspects, crushed 4 criminal gangs producing and selling counterfeit products, destroyed 33 sites of production and sales for counterfeit products, and confiscated near 30,000 items of counterfeit trademark commodities (including 4 "Haibao" (mascot of the Shanghai World Expo) statuettes and 3 production moulds), with a total of 107,000,000 RMB yuan of case value. The Hongkou District branch carried out two rounds of regulation on the Qipu Road market, destroying 5 sites of faked product manufacture and sales, capturing 10 suspects, and confiscating over 6,000 counterfeit brand bags and watches.

The culture law enforcement departments at municipal and district levels strengthened their supervision and regulation on the publication market and audio & video products market, specifying the inspection rules for night shifts and public holidays. Emphasis was laid on the regulation of distribution hubs of pirated audio & video products, and the crackdown on illegal storage and wholesale activities of pirated audio & video products, with major cases set to be uncovered first and foremost.  In 2009, 456 cases of selling illegal audio & video products, books, newspapers, and electronic publications were uncovered, with 5,688,000 items of pirated audio & video products and 516,000 pieces of illegal publications confiscated. And 147 major cases of wholesale, storing and transporting illegal audio & video products were investigated and prosecuted.

Shanghai Municipal Bureau of City Administration and Law Enforcement released “Notice on Strengthening IPR Protection of Shanghai World Expo” to crack down on illegal activities like selling products infringing the World Expo Symbol at stalls on pavements or streets. Taking into account the fact that such activities frequently occurred during the rush hour and on holidays, the Bureau ordered its field force to deploy according to the time and place to enhance on-the-spot law enforcement. In 2009 it made investigation of over 1,500 IPR infringement cases, temporarily detaining or confiscating over 40,000 faked “Haibao” mascots, illegal publications of over 38,000 volumes, 178,000 pieces of pirated discs.

In 2009 Shanghai Customs uncovered 1,019 IPR infringement cases, with 9,170,000 articles of infringing goods worth over 61,000,000 RMB yuan. Among them 679 export infringement cases were uncovered in post channels, with near 34,000 infringing postal parcels and over 2,000,000 articles of infringing commodities found which worth a total of 33,000,000 RMB yuan, growing by 214%, 3960%, 127%, and 580% respectively. One case involving export of faked REACH & Oral-B toothbrushes by the name of Zehua Commercial Company in Wuxi city was selected by QBPC (Quality Brands Protection Committee of the China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment) as one of the 10 Best IPR Protection Cases in China 2009-2010. Another case involving export of toothbrushes with logos infringing “Haibao” (Shanghai World Expo Mascot) to Cambodia by a company in Shenzhen city was the first one of Shanghai World Expo Symbols infringement cases uncovered by the customs system nationwide.

In 2009 Shanghai"s local court system continued its perfection of the trial system for IPR cases, by putting together the trial of civil, administrative, and criminal cases by IPR tribunals of basic-level people"s courts, and by concentrating designated areas over different districts. To overcome the difficulty of ascertaining technological facts concerning intellectual property cases, Shanghai High People"s Court established its Board of Technological Experts on IPR Case Trial, with 62 famous technological experts in various disciplines like electronics, communications, machinery, and chemicals from all over China. In addition, Shanghai High People"s Court conducted a survey on Shanghai World Expo IPR protection, and stipulated “Several Decisions by Shanghai People"s Court Concerning the Service and Support to World Expo 2010”, proposing the setting up of multiple mechanisms of designated jurisdiction, intensive trial, management software, publication sharing platform. In 2009, courts citywide accepted 2,027 first instance and second instance civil IPR cases, of which 1,795 were closed, growing by 15.36% and 9.86% over 2008 respectively. Among these cases, 1,706 first instance cases were accepted and 1,483 of them were closed, increasing by 12.09% and 6.16% over 2008 respectively. The courts accepted 94 first instance IPR criminal cases and 88 cases were closed, increasing by 18.99% and 8.64% over 2008 respectively.

III.   Organizing Publicity Events and Spreading Further the Concept of Intellectual Property Culture

In 2009 member units of Shanghai Intellectual Property Joint Committee and district governments in Shanghai carried out various publicity activities during the Intellectual Property Publicity Week with the theme of "Welcoming World Expo 2010, Protecting Intellectual Property Rights", which gave an impetus to the development of the intellectual property culture.

The General Office of Shanghai Intellectual Property Joint Committee organized the opening ceremony of the IPR Publicity Week, releasing a list of the “Top 10 IPR Protection Cases in Shanghai in 2008”, distributed the “Handbook for World Expo IPR Protection”, and sponsored a public performance on World Expo IPR Protection. Together with its counterparts in Jiangsu Province and Zhejiang Province, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Joint Committee held a News Briefing on Intellectual Property Development and Protection in the Yangtze-River Delta to the foreign consulates, foreign chambers of commerce, domestic and foreign enterprises and media. The Committee also organized the "Road Tours of World Expo with IPR" in popular entertainment forms for the public in Shanghai.

Shanghai Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce made wide use of television, radio, newspapers, and outdoor posters and other media to publicize relevant knowledge of the World Expo IPR like the “Regulations on the Protection of the World Expo Symbols”, the record of using the World Expo Symbols, the protection of World Expo franchise for businesses. The Administration also held News Briefing to the media on the protection of World Expo trademarks and “Typical 10 Trademark Infringement Cases”.

Shanghai Copyright Bureau and the Municipal Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination jointly compiled the Handbook for World Expo Copyright Protection to make publication to the public and to help citizens raise their awareness of copyright protection. With the focus on Shanghai"s copyright protection, copyright management, and the development of the copyright industry, Shanghai Copyright Bureau organized several seminars to publicize copyright laws, regulations and policies, and to seek advices from all parties.

Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration organized seminars on the implementation of the newly-amended Chinese Patent Law for the local districts, and carried out a series of publicizing activities for enterprise and Hi-Tech parks. Together with Shanghai Municipal Judicial Bureau, the Administration organized related personnel to attend the lectures by satellite transmission on the third round of revisions and amendments on the Chinese Patent Law.

The Municipal Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination held the "Exhibition on Shanghai World Expo IPR Protection" in Luwan District, showing the overall IPR protection of Shanghai World Expo, and some of the confiscated products infringing World Expo Symbols in law enforcement activities by the government departments concerned.

The Municipal Justice Bureau and Shanghai Bar Association jointly held the "Seminar on World Expo-Related Intellectual Property" to discuss the professional issues of intellectual property related to the World Expo. The Bureau integrated the development of intellectual property culture into the legal system construction. Through the magazine Shanghai Bar, the theoretical research and publicity of issues concerning intellectual property laws were strengthened.

During the Publicity Week, Shanghai Customs put its emphasis on the newly-amended “Implementation Measures of ‘Regulations on IPR Protection in China’ by China Customs” to importers and exporters, and strengthened the publicity of the World Expo Symbols protection at the customs by setting up info desks. CCTV"s Law Today program reported on the IPR protection of Shanghai Customs.

Shanghai Municipal Bureau of City Administration and Law Enforcement facilitated the publicity activities for “Regulations on World Expo Symbols Protection” and the Chinese Trademark Law with government departments like the Intellectual Property Administration, Administration of Industry and Commerce, and Culture departments to enhance the public"s awareness of IPR, by activities like "100 City Administration Squads into Community and Actively Rendering Services".

The municipal level and district level culture law enforcement departments carried out kinds of publicity activities with a total of 186 publicity and training events, and collaborated with Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture, Radio, Film & TV in the destruction of infringing and pirated products and various illegal publications.

The different levels of economic criminal investigation departments of the public security system citywide, together with related government bodies, raised the public"s awareness of IPR protection by releasing typical cases, revealing criminal modus operandi, preaching laws and regulations, etc. Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Public Security held a news briefing on IPR protection, releasing the achievements during the crackdown campaign on IPR criminal cases.

The court system of Shanghai held the 15th anniversary celebrations for the municipal people"s High and Intermediate IPR tribunals with a celebration conference, and had Easday.com and Chinacourt.org broadcasting live 2 IPR case trials with deputy chief judges in charge as presiding judges. The local court system also held the Seminar on the Forefront of Judicial IPR Protection, with in-depth discussions about the three topics of "World Expo IPR protection", "technological standards and patents", and "researches for trial methods of IPR cases".

During the IPR Publicity Week, the 18 local districts carried out over 100 relevant events, including themed lectures on intellectual property, open performances, consultations, training, forums, talks, contests of IPR knowledge, and law enforcement activities, which bringing the publicity of intellectual property to the climax.

IV.    Constructing a Service Platform and Perfecting the Intellectual Property Service System

In 2009, the government bodies related to intellectual property carried out the National and local Intellectual Property Strategy with the development of a public IPR service platform, providing multi-level, multi-channel IPR services to enterprises for their independent innovation by expanding the scope, improving the level, and perfecting the system of services.

Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration, with the support from related government bodies, took the lead countrywide and established the Shanghai Public Service Platform of Patent Information. The platform combined the multiple functions of patent retrieval, online analysis, database authoring and management, patent info customization and patent alert, patent trade & evaluation. It worked with more than 53,000,000 entries of patent info. By the end of 2009, there had been 870,000 visits to the platform, 2,080 registered users from around the country, and the platform had set up 11 theme databases for related domestic industries.

Shanghai Copyright Bureau, in collaboration with Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange, set up the Copyright Trade Center and offered corresponding training programs. The Bureau had been setting up copyright workstations and service spots in the concentration areas of copyright related industries to provide customized service of copyright management, copyright market operation, and copyright protection to SMEs. Currently the first batch of copyright workstations has been officially founded in related industrial parks in Changning, Xuhui, Yangpu, Hongkou Districts and Pudong New Area.

Shanghai Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce started the preparatory work for the construction of the Trademark Exhibition Center by organizing information collection and architecture design. The Trademark Exhibition Center is a public service platform which combines the general functions of trademark publicity, showcase and service, as an important foundation for the development of the overall trademark public service system in Shanghai.

To deal with the global financial crisis and help enterprises go through difficulties of funding, Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration, Shanghai Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce, and Shanghai Copyright Bureau collaborated with six other government departments, including Shanghai Municipal Financial Service Office, to stipulate “Implementation Measures of Facilitating Funding Through Intellectual Property Pledge in Shanghai”, and started the experimental work of funding through intellectual property pledge. In 2009, 64 local enterprises obtained 84 intellectual property pledge loans with a worth of 115,000,000 RMB yuan.

Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration, Shanghai Development and Reform Commission, along with other government departments, explored to set up the intellectual property service system for major special projects and major construction projects. The focus was laid on providing patent information retrieval, subsidy application, business consultation, personnel training. Patent advisors were dispatched to the 54 major industrial technological projects in Shanghai, acting as patent agents and providing relevant retrieval and consultation services. Experimentation on special IPR consideration for major projects was also on the way.

To facilitate the orderly development of trademark agency industry, Shanghai Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce conducted a survey of the trademark agency market, collecting detailed information of the trademark agencies in Shanghai, and strengthened daily supervision and management. Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration actively carried forward the development of patent agencies, as there emerged 8 new patent agencies, with the total number reached 62. The local patent office under the State Intellectual Property Office initiated the registration for electronic patent applicants, providing more convenient service to patent applicants.

Shanghai Intellectual Property Aid Center directed its effort to provide IPR protection aid service, opened up the "12330" public service hotline, and received 381 calls and 46 visits in 2009.

V.       Strengthening Intellectual Property Talents Training for the Practical Demands

Shanghai Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau collaborated with Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration to organize the continued IPR education for public demands, with 17,383 persons receiving training and taking examinations. The 3rd Shanghai patent management engineer certificate examination was organized, with 118 people obtaining the certificate, and so far there were 527 certified patent management engineers citywide.

Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration collaborated with related government departments to organize the training program on patent administrative law enforcement citywide, with 16 trainees passing the examination and obtaining “Shanghai Administrative Law Enforcement License”; and to organize two consecutive workshops on “Strengthening IPR Protection, Regulating Business Operation and Management”, with 132 trainees obtaining “Certificate for Shanghai Business System Intellectual Property Practitioner”.

Shanghai Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce worked with the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination to provide training for Shanghai World Expo Symbol Protection to 350 local cadres in the industry and commerce system. The local Administration acted in concert with State Administration to offer training on trademark strategy and World Expo Symbol Protection to national industry and commerce system. During the IPR Publicity Week, the Administration invited some foreign trademark owners, including HP, Canon, and Epson, to give training to over 100 trademark law enforcement cadres, teaching them how to identify counterfeit commodities.

Shanghai Customs collaborated with the Shanghai Representative Office of The Japan External Trade Organization and some well-known intellectual property agencies to offer training about the identification of faked products for intellectual property liaison persons in the clearance, inspection, and material control departments of the Customs. The Customs invited Nike and other 5 IPR owners to offer training about the identification of faked products as it launched the crackdown campaign on infringement activities in post channel, which improved the efficiency of field customs officers in the investigation of infringing commodities.

Shanghai Intellectual Property Service Center offered training programs for the preparation of the National Patent Agent Qualification Examinations in 2009 to more than 320 trainees. The Center offered workshops for patent practitioners in enterprises, industrial and technological parks, patent agencies, and the public health system, with 730 people receiving training. It also offered advanced training programs on patent information analysis with over 70 people receiving training.