The first half of 2019 has seen a surge of foreign patent applications in China, with the number increasing by 8.6 percent over the same period of last year.

The number of foreign trademark applications in China increased by 15.4 percent, according to Zhao Gang, deputy director of the National Intellectual Property Administration (NIPA), at a briefing conference on July 24.

As Zhao pointed out, the intellectual property system works as an important part of the business environment. The increase in the number of patent and trademark applications made by foreign companies in China in the first half of this year shows that China's investment and business environment are sound, and foreign companies have much greater confidence and trust in China's intellectual property system.

At the meeting, Zhang Zhicheng, director of the IP Protection Office of NIPA, also mentioned the role of the National Response and Guidance Center for Overseas Intellectual Property Disputes.

He said that China will further open up to the outside world. Against this backdrop, the Center was established to focus on the problems existing in the response to overseas IP disputes and accelerate the establishment of a corresponding mechanism. The guidance center has two main tasks and functions as follows:

——Make greater efforts to promote international cooperation in IP protection, to guide and serve enterprises in overseas rights protection;

——Make greater efforts to popularize overseas IP information, guide and serve Chinese enterprises to fully understand and fully respect other countries' IP systems and rules, and serve as a "loudspeaker" for overseas rules and a "booster" for enterprises to improve their IP ability in their international development. ln the future, enterprises and the public with relevant needs will be able to seek help from the national guidance center for overseas IP disputes through three channels: an online platform, by telephone and through service windows. Relevant services will be launched by the state administration in the near future.