China is in ongoing negotiations to join the Hague Agreement regarding industrial design, which is seen as a crucial step to show China’s commitment to intellectual property protection. “Joining the international agreement means our protection of patents should be further intensified or, more precisely, it means the length of the time that we protect industrial design patents must be extended,” Ma Yide, IP Professor from Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, said. “The extension will be beneficial for patent owners and also help our country’s patent protection align with international norms.”

Shen Changyu, Director of the National Intellectual Property Administration, said at the opening of the 15th China (Wuxi) International Design Expo that China is negotiating with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to join the agreement. By joining the system, Chinese companies will have better protections for their own industrial designs, and Made in China products can better integrate into the global market. The Hague Agreement for the international registration of industrial designs currently has 70 contracting parties worldwide. An industrial design will be protected by all contracting parties through a single application. It requires each contracting party to protect industrial design patents for at least 15 years, which is longer than the 10 years of protection currently applicable in China.

China has now begun the steps required to join, including amending the Patent Law to extend industrial design patent protection to 15 years. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) held its first review of the law in December. Two more reviews are required before the amended law can be adopted, the China Daily reports.

Beijing and Shanghai are among the 10 most innovative cities in the world, based on published articles in leading academic journals, according to a report by the Shanghai Institute of for Science of Science and the Springer Nature publishing company, which surveyed 82 influential academic journals, including Nature, Science, and Cell, from 2012 to 2017, and calculated the contribution of different cities to global innovation according to the location of the authors’ research institutes. It found that researchers in the 20 most innovative cities contributed more than one-fourth of all the papers, and called those cities “the sources of global innovation in science and technology”.

New York topped the survey, followed by Boston and Beijing. Shanghai ranked seventh. Other cities in the top 10 included San Francisco, Tokyo, Paris, Los Angeles, Seoul and London. The most influential research
institute was Harvard University, while Peking University and Tsinghua University in Beijing ranked seventh and 10th respectively; Shanghai’s Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University were in 21st and 29th place. In terms of major scientific achievements, San Francisco ranked first with 12, while Beijing and Shanghai respectively had three and two. “The strength of academic research in the United States was enhanced by the close collaboration of these innovative cities,” said Wang Xueying, Associate Researcher at the Shanghai Institute for Science of Science.

“There are strong academic links between San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston, which form a network of innovation,” she said, adding that the cooperation between Beijing and Shanghai and other East Asian cities, such as Tokyo and Seoul, should be strengthened, the China Daily reports.

With over 1.3 billion inhabitants – of whom 1 billion are cyber active – China can no longer be ignored as the cornerstone of your international strategy. Big data, analytics, cloud and mobile solutions, AI and social media are constantly changing business dynamics across all continents and industries. Especially e-commerce has turned out to be one of the largest game changers of the last decennia. Through this seminar the Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce and VOKA West-Flanders want to help companies with ambition on the Chinese market in developing their e-commerce strategy.

We help you to fine tune your strategy using the most valuable and successful e-commerce models which are applicable in China. We also give you a thorough picture of the Chinese e-commerce landscape and the ecosystem in which you will operate.

Of course, we also do not forget the practical side of things. Several business cases will be examined, illustrating the most important “do’s-and-don’ts” and they will inspire you to develop a successful e-commerce strategy for your company on the China market. There will also be a discussion moment to help you learn from other companies in the audience.

After this seminar:
• You will have a solid understanding of the e-commerce landscape in China, which no doubt will offer you a competitive advantage.
• You will have gotten in touch with the latest and most relevant technologies and business models which can be used to fine tune your Chinese strategy.
• You will have an understanding of new concepts which will make your e-commerce business in China boom.

Register for this seminar through this link

To get more information you can contact tom.vermeersch@voka.be

Guest speaker
Guest speaker is Mr. Bo Ji, Chief Representative of Europe & Assistant Dean of Global Executive Education at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB). Mr. Bo Ji has been working at senior executive level at Fortune 500 companies such as Monsanto, Cargill, Pfizer and Mars.

Target group
Entrepreneurs, CEOs, COOs, purchasing managers… of companies desiring to fine tune or develop their e-commerce strategy for China.

Extra: Contact day East-Asia (in cooperation with Flanders Investment & Trade)
Voka – Chamber of Commerce West-Flanders is once again organizing contact days with the Flemish economic representatives of Flanders Investment & Trade.

On Thursday 18 June 2019 we receive during the whole day the following representatives: Tony Zhang (Guangzhou, China), Bart Boschmans (Shanghai, China), Doris Wu (Taipei, Taiwan) and Katrien Leinders (Hong Kong, China).

This contact day offers an ideal opportunity for entrepreneurs and professionals to have a free-of-charge face-to-face consultation with one of the Vlev’s. You can discuss with them, before or after the seminar “e-commerce in China”, your project, situation and opportunities in the region or country. You can register for this contact day via west-vlaanderen@fitagency.be

Practical information:
Location: Voka – Chamber of Commerce West-Flanders, President Kennedylaan 9A, 8500 Kortrijk
Price: for Members of the Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce (FCCC) and VOKA: €190
Price for Non-members: €290
Ambassadors: free of charge

Contact
FCCC: info@flanders-china.be

According to a Circular [2019] No. 2 (the “Circular”) released by the Tariff Commission of the State Council (the “Tariff Commission”), which is a multi-ministerial board led by the Ministry of Finance (“MoF”), on May 13, 2019, China has introduced a product exclusion process, expected to be officially launched on June 3, 2019. This is the equivalent of the product exclusion process already put in place by the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, aiming to provide exemption from the Chinese retaliatory tariffs applicable to the U.S. origin goods based on particular products.

We set forth in the below alert an overview of this exclusion process and our recommended strategies and immediate next steps for multinational corporations that sell U.S. origin products to China. Please feel free to share the alert with your colleagues who might also be interested in the topics raised in this alert.

If you have any questions on the topics covered or need further clarification on any particular issue, please do not hesitate to get in touch with your usual contact at Baker McKenzie, or any of the lawyers listed below.

Download Alert

Jon Cowley

Registered Foreign Lawyer

+852 2846 1744


Jon.Cowley@bakermckenzie.com

Frank Pan

Special Counsel

+86 21 6105 8523

Frank.Pan@bakermckenzie.com

The Flanders China Chamber of Commerce and KBC Bank organized a briefing focused on “China-U.S. Trade tensions also affect European companies. What about yours?”. This event took place on 16 May 2019 at KBC Bank in Ghent. Following an introduction by Gwenn Sonck, Executive Director, Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce, two bankers from KBC Bank discussed the following topics.

• China Economic Update Post-Trade War – Mr. P.C. Leung, General Manager, KBC Bank N.V. Shanghai Branch
• Is Fortress Europe ready for the Chinese Dragon? – Mr. Jan Van Hove, KBC Group’s Chief Economist, and General Manager of KBC’s international economic research activities
A Q & A discussion concluded the event.