Being the "Best Partner" in Building a World-Class Business Environment

— Observations from Grassroots Intellectual Property Work in Shanghai

How long does it take to cover the "last mile"?

How deep must one go to reach the "frontline" of the market?

In Shanghai, grassroots intellectual property (IP) staff make repeated visits to enterprises, tirelessly using questions to draw out business needs; they put themselves in the shoes of various industries time and again, breaking new ground and removing obstacles for IP protection in emerging fields; and they steadily advance into the core arenas of innovation, making the market feel like it has a "home" right behind it.

A Few More Questions, Giving Enterprises Options and Direction

"Where did this infringement occur? Have you preserved the evidence? We can step in immediately."

In a meeting room at Shanghai Hero Esports Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "Hero Esports") in Huangpu District, Shanghai, our interview was suddenly interrupted by a rapid-fire series of questions. After just a 0.01-second pause, I readily handed over the "right to ask" to Han Xiao, Section Chief of the Intellectual Property Section of the Huangpu District Market Supervision Administration (Intellectual Property Office).

When discussing the company's recent IP protection priorities, Zhou Peipei, Director of the Legal Center at Hero Esports, explained that over the past two years, the company's business in producing and selling esports IP derivatives had grown rapidly. However, during this process, they discovered many individuals or OEM factories producing samples based on promotional images and rushing into production ahead of schedule, causing increasing revenue losses.

Li Shixuan, Legal Manager at Hero Esports, added: "A few days ago, I saw a presale link for one of our new products on Xiaohongshu [a social media platform]. By the time we asked our business colleagues to collect evidence, the link had already disappeared."

It was at this point that Han Xiao interjected with her rapid questions. She quickly explained: "Our Huangpu IP enforcement team has experience with this kind of 'playbook.' Now that you have a lead on the infringement, we can connect your case with our enforcement officers through our section, assist in evidence collection, and move quickly against counterfeits."

"Is there still a way even if the link is gone?" Li Shixuan pressed.

"Yes, we can ask the relevant platform to cooperate with backend data retrieval," Han Xiao replied.

In just ten minutes, because the IP staff took the initiative to ask a few more questions, a difficult issue for the company found a solution.

"When working at the grassroots level, we have to be proactive. We can't expect companies to immediately think of the solutions that we, as insiders, are already familiar with," Han Xiao said. "We need to put ourselves in their shoes. We can't just watch them struggle with a blank slate. Instead, we should list out viable options and let them choose."

"Patent applicants must be individuals who have made creative contributions to the substantive features of the invention. With so many applicants listed on this core patent application, you'd better check each person's corresponding work one by one. Core patent inventors often align with the company's core technical team—this is part of verifying a company's sci-tech innovation attributes. Would you like our center to assist in reviewing this again?" The staff from the Shanghai Pudong IP Protection Center (hereinafter "Pudong Protection Center") made this suggestion, and the company representatives nodded in agreement.

In 2022, the Pudong Protection Center took the lead nationwide in establishing a "Service Station for Enterprises Planning a Sci-Tech Innovation Board (STAR Market) Listing," providing public IP services at the forefront to help enterprises solidify their "hard tech" credentials and lay a strong foundation for going public.

"For a tech company that has survived the tough entrepreneurial journey to reach the pre-listing or listing stage, it is no small feat," said Gu Ting, Deputy Director of the Pudong Protection Center, reflecting on years of face-to-face interactions with enterprises. "But the last leg of a journey is often the hardest. Therefore, we focus primarily on 'verification of sci-tech innovation attributes,' helping companies make checklists, scrutinize details, patch loopholes, and build advantages in IP work that is critical for the STAR Market, so they can make a final push to the top."

On one hand, because the STAR Market requires a strong correlation between a company's main products and its core patented technologies, the Pudong Protection Center proactively guides companies to refine their patent portfolio strategies and architectures, and, where appropriate, uses its fast-track pre-examination channel to support companies in rapidly building a core patent moat that meets STAR Market requirements. On the other hand, the center regularly conducts IP infringement risk assessments and compliance guidance, comprehensively identifying potential risks such as ownership disputes based on the company's industry characteristics, technology direction, and stage of development, helping companies strictly adhere to IP compliance standards for listing.

"Grassroots IP work is where we can best exchange sincerity with enterprises. Companies see us as a 'third eye' for their IP efforts, hoping we can help them see the bigger picture, identify problems, distill needs, and finally eliminate blind spots," said Gu Ting. "By doing these things well, we help raise companies' awareness, recognition, and emphasis on IP work, enabling them to grow from 'not knowing what to do' to 'knowing exactly how to do it.'"

Thinking a Few Layers Deeper, Letting Industries "Breathe" and Gain Support

In ancient times, the Duke of Shao, during his巡视, often heard cases and settled disputes under the sweet pear tree. Today, in Shanghai's Xuhui District, IP service outposts such as the Shi Yu Model Worker Innovation Studio, the "Zhilian · West Bund" Prosecutor's Office, and the Binjiang IP Protection Liaison Point are built right next to innovation parks and deep within the streets where companies are "settled."

"In recent years, Xuhui District has seen rapid development in high-end manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and cultural creativity, with IP disputes growing alongside market competition. The Xuhui Court handles about 1,000 high-tech IP litigation cases each year—a volume that also reflects the significant impact of IP on industrial development," said Shi Yu, Deputy Chief Judge of the Intellectual Property Tribunal at Xuhui District People's Court.

"Through our work, we've gradually realized that companies need more than just legal clarification from judges after 'courtroom trials.' What they truly expect from grassroots judiciaries is practical IP legal guidance that takes into account industry competition dynamics and corporate operational patterns," Shi Yu added. Precisely because both enterprise needs and judicial functions have naturally extended toward "early intervention and prevention," the Shi Yu Model Worker Innovation Studio was established in 2023.

By meticulously sorting out common issues within industries, the studio holds 30 to 40 IP law lectures each year; it strengthens pre-litigation mediation guidance for IP disputes in response to urgent and difficult needs of street-level enterprises, promoting "on-the-spot resolution"; and it conducts "health check-ups" for companies, providing customized risk alerts. "Under the sweet pear tree," the flowers of public service bloom ever more brightly.

"IP work has another special characteristic," Shi Yu noted. "Although IP is a private right, it is closely intertwined with public interest. Judicial adjudication must fully consider the balance of interests among all parties, allowing industries to 'breathe' while protecting public interests."

In one case he handled, the defendant developed a search engine based on large language model–enhanced retrieval technology. The search results displayed third-party cloud drive links to a film whose information network dissemination right was held by the plaintiff, leading to an infringement lawsuit. The first-instance court held that the search results were not manually arranged and that search engines with public-interest attributes should not be subject to overly high duty of care; otherwise, it might force them to lower technical standards and affect public access to information. The second-instance court upheld the ruling. This case effectively balanced the interests of rights holders, technology innovators, and the public, responded to the developmental needs of technology in the AI era, and "reserved" due space for technological innovation and industrial development. The case was selected as a 2025 Shanghai Court IP Judicial Protection Typical Case.

In Fengxian District, Shanghai, a well-planned strategy—"mobilizing provisions before troops"—has propelled the "Oriental Beauty Valley" industrial transformation.

Ten years ago, several OEM factories for major international beauty brands set up operations here, giving Fengxian a head start in building a competitive beauty industry from scratch. Through district-wide factor platform development and support, the "Oriental Beauty Valley" now hosts 85 licensed cosmetic manufacturing enterprises above designated size, with nearly 300 cosmetic brands and an output value exceeding 10 billion yuan, with products packaged and shipped worldwide.

As the nation's first fast-track collaborative protection node serving the cosmetics sector, the Fengxian (Cosmetics) IP Rapid Rights Protection Center (hereinafter "Fengxian Rapid Center") focuses on the characteristics of cosmetic designs—"fast iteration, short market cycles"—by diligently conducting design patent pre-examination. It also continuously strengthens cooperation with the Jing'an Sub-center of the Shanghai IP Protection Center (hereinafter "Shanghai Protection Center") in sharing patent pre-examination resources for the beauty industry, fully covering various patent layout needs and supporting the two districts' high-quality development of an industrial collaboration system with "R&D in Jing'an, production in Fengxian."

"In the early stages of setting up the Fengxian Rapid Center, considering that most companies in the 'Oriental Beauty Valley' were building their own brands 'from scratch,' we incorporated trademark services into our operations to truly accompany their growth. To date, we have handled nearly 7,000 trademark matters, received over 5,000 consultations, and saved enterprises approximately 17 million yuan in business costs," said Wang Bin, Director of the center.

In the past two years, the Fengxian Rapid Center has also successively set up consultation windows for customs IP protection registration, trade secrets, and data product IP registration, and introduced the "Fengfa · Oriental Beauty Valley" IP Circuit Trial Station and the Fengxian District Law Society Grassroots Service Station, among others, continuously extending its service scope, expanding functions, and strengthening services to create comprehensive and efficient innovation ecosystem "nodes."

"We hope that whenever the 'Oriental Beauty Valley' beauty industry leaps forward, it can immediately find a 'shuttle bus' to help it on its way," Wang Bin said.

Going a Few Steps Further, Making the Market Feel Like Home

Venturing deep into the G60 Science and Technology Innovation Corridor, igniting transformation enthusiasm in Jing'an, and building a "bridgehead" for innovation at the Lingang New Area—across Shanghai, the Shanghai Protection Center has established six sub-centers, with two more under construction. These sub-centers focus on three major industrial fields—new materials, energy conservation and environmental protection, and artificial intelligence (including integrated circuits)—and implement unified business standards with the Shanghai Protection Center, supporting the continuous strengthening of regional innovation capabilities and promoting the agglomeration of innovation momentum in the same industrial fields.

"Building sub-centers 'across the board' is aimed at providing 'targeted' and better services," said Zhang Qiong, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Protection Center. "Each sub-center knows more about the growth of companies 'at its doorstep.' Through this layout, we hope to enhance information interaction among regional innovators, precisely extend our service reach, and ensure that high-quality resources are used where they are most needed. Moreover, sub-centers can leverage some functions of co-located offices to form a collaborative protection synergy, making grassroots work more effective and practical."

Qingpu District, Shanghai, is uniquely positioned to benefit from the spillover effects of the China International Import Expo (CIIE). How to assist emerging brands and foreign-invested enterprises in obtaining their first business licenses and first certificates, and accelerate their "settling-in" process in Shanghai, is a key focus for relevant functional agencies in Qingpu.

"To seize critical windows like the CIIE, we must achieve rapid response to business needs," said Shen Zhou, a staff member of the IP Section at Qingpu District Market Supervision Administration (IP Office). "In recent years, based on market feedback, we have continuously explored the 'best combination' of integrated services. We moved the district bureau's business license processing function and the trademark registration application acceptance function of the National Intellectual Property Administration's Shanghai Qingpu Trademark Service Window directly to the CIIE site, creating a 'green channel' where business licenses can be processed on the spot while trademark applications are accepted simultaneously, helping newly established companies seamlessly start brand building."

In May last year, the Yangpu District IP Bureau, through the Yangpu District IP Public Service Center, launched the "Zhihui Young · IP Excel" system, which enables one-stop online inquiry of patent, trademark, copyright, and other IP data. The system is freely available to science and technology parks, providing critical support for park-based enterprises to dynamically monitor innovation trends. "In particular, the system can intelligently identify high-value patents, solving a long-standing challenge for parks in patent cultivation," said a representative from Fudan University National Science and Technology Park.

"Yangpu District has a high concentration of innovation clusters, which facilitates our further deployment of public service center workstations to achieve 'back-to-back' collaboration with technology parks such as Changyang Valley, Wan Valley, Dazhongchuang, and Fudan. Currently, the system has deeply connected to approximately 11,000 enterprises within these parks, gradually becoming an IP infrastructure embedded in the park innovation ecosystem," said a Yangpu IP Bureau official. "We strive to promote the latest IP policies at 'zero distance,' break ground and pave the way for enterprises with 'deep dedication,' and provide 'integrated' comprehensive empowerment, translating our geographical advantages into tangible grassroots outcomes so that enterprises can 'get things done' as soon as they 'knock on the door.'"

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How long does it take to cover the "last mile"?

How deep must one go to reach the "frontline" of the market?

In Shanghai, grassroots IP staff march every mile with resolute determination and keep digging deeper into the market with unwavering perseverance. They are accelerating their pace to enter the hearts of enterprises and integrate into the fabric of industries, growing into the "best partners" in building a world-class business environment.