Protecting Your Mechanical Inventions in China

Registering and protecting IP in China is an increasingly relevant topic for IP managers in mechanical and technological fields.

China is a key market for the mechanical industry and the Insight IP Boardroom discussion took place to explore some of the key challenges, queries and opportunities regarding IP in the region. The Boardroom was attended by IP professionals from the automotive and industrial manufacturing sectors and the attendees had the chance to share their experiences and explore critical questions with Stephen Yang, Managing Partner, IP March.

The overall conclusion was that China is an increasingly welcoming market for foreign entities for filing, litigating and prosecuting. There are processes and technicalities that are particular to the Chinese system and it can definitely be advantageous for foreign entities to be aware of these in order to manage their IP in the most effective way possible. Regarding mechanical IP specifically, there was a lot of discussion on how to optimise the relationships between applications in different regions, including in a JV scenario.