BEIJING, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- China has established a comprehensive support network to address the growing challenges faced by Chinese businesses expanding overseas, according to a press conference on Friday.
This system integrates regulations, advisory services and information services to assist companies in navigating intellectual property (IP) disputes in the global market.
A key part of these efforts involves implementing the State Council's regulations on handling foreign-related intellectual property disputes, which took effect in May 2025. It provides a legal basis for taking countermeasures when foreign countries use IP disputes to unjustifiably restrict or suppress Chinese citizens or organizations.
"These regulations offer enterprises with a clear legal pathway to defend their rights overseas," Guo Wen, a senior official at the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), said at the press conference.
The CNIPA, the country's top IP regulator, has also expanded its assistance channels. By the end of 2025, the CNIPA had set up 99 IP guidance centers across 30 provincial-level regions and six industry-specific platforms for sectors like automobiles and solar power. To offer localized support, it has also established overseas outposts in 11 countries.
Additionally, the CNIPA has built a talent pool of nearly 2,000 experts in the field of overseas IP dispute resolution to support its network, which had handled over 4,800 consultations, addressing e-commerce IP conflicts and trademark squatting, by the end of last year.
To address the information gap faced by domestic enterprises, the CNIPA has strengthened information support by optimizing and upgrading a service platform, which integrates 1,470 laws and regulations from 189 countries and regions, as well as international treaties. A series of country-specific IP rights protection guides have also been issued, providing "one-stop" information access, Guo added.
Other endeavors include talent cultivation. Specialized lawyer training programs are underway in collaboration with judicial authorities, while joint international IP institutes have been launched involving both Tsinghua University and Peking University to train more experts.
China has ranked top globally in terms of international patent applications for six consecutive years. However, foreign-related IP disputes overseas have become a major issue for domestic enterprises expanding abroad. A lack of information and limited response capacity have proved obstacles, Guo said. ■
