The "Four Lines of Defense" that Enterprises Must Build from the 15th China Intellectual Property Annual Conference

2026-09-22
——Trademarks, domain names, patents, and copyrights - a clear explanation of how companies can protect their core assets

The 15th China Intellectual Property Annual Conference will be held on September 8-9, 2026 at the Beijing National Convention Center Phase II. This is a landmark event in the field of intellectual property at the beginning of the 15th Five Year Plan. More than 8000 practitioners from over 40 countries and regions around the world participated in the event, with the theme of "Striving to promote the high-quality development of intellectual property in the 15th Five Year Plan".



Guo Zhenyu, Member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and Deputy Director of the Trademark Office of the China National Intellectual Property Administration, delivered a speech

1、 Intellectual property is no longer a 'legal matter'
At the annual meeting, the China National Intellectual Property Administration presented a heavy report card of the "14th Five Year Plan". Several figures are enough to illustrate the problem:

-There are 5.394 million valid invention patents and 50.816 million valid trademark registrations in China;

-The PCT international patent application volume has ranked first in the world for 7 consecutive years;

-The added value of patent intensive industries has exceeded 18 trillion yuan, accounting for 13.38% of GDP;

-In the "2025 Global Innovation Index Report" of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), China's ranking has risen to 10th place, ranking among the top ten in the world for the first time; The Shenzhen Hong Kong Guangzhou cluster has been ranked first among the top 100 global innovation clusters.

Behind the numbers is a trend: intellectual property has long been upgraded from "legal compliance affairs" to "core business strategies of enterprises". Whether it is a startup or an industry leader, brand, technology, and content are becoming more valuable assets than factory buildings and equipment.

But assets need to be 'guarded' in order to maintain their value and increase in value. The new laws, regulations, and topics released intensively at this year's annual meeting have precisely drawn a clear "protective map" for enterprises. We break it down into four lines of defense: trademarks, domain names, patents, and copyrights.



2、 The First Line of Defense: Trademarks - The New Trademark Law is Coming!
One of the highlights of the annual meeting is the interpretation of the newly revised Trademark Law. This law was reviewed and passed on June 26, 2026, and will come into effect on January 1, 2027. It is the first comprehensive revision of the Trademark Law in over 40 years since its implementation in 1983 (increasing from 8 chapters and 73 articles to 9 chapters and 87 articles).

For enterprises, there are three directly related aspects to this amendment:

1. Take strong measures to combat "malicious registration, hoarding, and speculation". Applications that are not intended for use and clearly exceed normal business needs will not be approved directly, and violators may be fined up to 100000 yuan; At the same time, refine the rule of "revocable if not used for three consecutive years" to force the withdrawal of idle trademarks that have been registered but not used.

2. Upgrading the protection of well-known trademarks. Change "recognition" to "confirmation" to curb the phenomenon of blindly pursuing well-known recognition; More importantly, it is no longer necessary to distinguish whether cross class protection can be achieved based on registration or not, in order to better align with high standard international economic and trade rules.

3. Overseas rights protection now has an "official weapon". The new law adds a clause for confirming overseas cases of well-known trademarks - when Chinese brands are maliciously registered overseas, they can apply to the national trademark authority to issue an official well-known trademark confirmation document as the legal core basis for cross-border rights protection. In the words of the annual meeting, this is' building a strong intellectual property protection wall for Chinese brands to go global '.

Enterprise Action Checklist: Don't just "register and forget" anymore. Trademarks should be used truthfully and evidence should be retained; Core brands should establish a full category and multilingual layout as early as possible; Once you set sail, study the registration path of the target country as soon as possible, don't wait for being registered before regretting.



3、 Second Line of Defense: Domain Names - The Most Undervalued 'Digital Trademark'
This is a blind spot in the perception of many enterprises. For a long time, people have equated intellectual property with trademarks, patents, and copyrights, but overlooked the fact that the string of "addresses" in cyberspace is itself a brand asset.

This annual meeting released a strong policy signal: in March 2026, the China National Intellectual Property Administration issued the Guidelines for the Analysis and Use of Intellectual Property Information, which for the first time included domain names in the core category of trademark rights conflict troubleshooting, becoming a legal "must check" for trademark monitoring.

Why is domain name important? Three characteristics determine its strategic position:

1. It is globally unique, first come, first served, and does not undergo prior rights review during registration - owning a trademark does not mean that others cannot register a domain name with the same name;

2. Combining the dual attributes of an "online trademark" and a "traffic entry point", counterfeit websites and phishing websites divert customers and overdraw goodwill through similar domain names;

Once maliciously hijacked, the cost of repurchasing is extremely high and may even lead to prolonged disputes.

Enterprise Action Checklist (Four Suggestions from Experts):

1. Check whether mainstream top-level domains (such as. com,. cn,. website, etc.) have been preemptively registered;

2. Register Chinese brand domain names and common variants in the system, especially including AI related variant domain names in the list;

3. Establish a full process protection mechanism of "registration monitoring repurchase arbitration";

4. Regularly carry out domain name monitoring and move the brand protection checkpoint forward.

One sentence: Trademarks and domain names are indispensable both online and offline.



4、 The third line of defense: patents - high-value layout is like a "moat" for going global
At the annual meeting, patents were one of the most lively topics. Two facts are worth remembering for businesses:

1. China has applied for nearly 70% of global patents in the field of generative artificial intelligence (WIPO data);

This year's WIPO Global Award has been won by three Chinese companies, ranking first in the world in terms of quantity, and most of the award-winning companies are "specialized, refined, innovative".

But the other side of impressive data is the common pain point for small and medium-sized enterprises: "heavy on technology research and development, light on global layout; heavy on market expansion, light on compliance and risk control", often "innovative results, lack of protection system, lack of confidence in going global".



Several corporate guests have provided a consistent methodology - 'Product not in motion, IP first':

OPPO's Director of Intellectual Property proposed that patent layout should have a five fold perspective of "legal, technological, commercial, industrial, and international", focusing limited resources on high-value patents;
2. CATL emphasizes that in order to break the internal competition, China's manufacturing industry must shift from cost competition to value competition, and the source of value is innovation and differentiation;
3. Gao Yongyi from the Capital Intellectual Property Service Industry Association shared a heart wrenching case: an innovative pharmaceutical company went to the United States to negotiate agency for a new drug that was about to be approved. The other party only asked, "Do you have a US patent?" and then terminated the negotiation - after years of research and development, they were stuck at the doorstep without any overseas layout.
Enterprise Action Checklist: Conduct target market patent searches and risk assessments before exporting; Make good use of the three international channels of PCT international patents, Hague system design, and Madrid trademarks; Establish a rapid response mechanism for overseas disputes. At present, 116 overseas intellectual property dispute response and guidance platforms have been established nationwide, serving as "foreign aid" for enterprises going global.



5、 The Fourth Line of Defense: Copyright - A New Exam Question in the AI Era
This year's annual conference specifically set up a forum on "Digital Transformation and Value Coexistence of Copyright Industry", bringing AI copyright into the spotlight. This is a proposition that all content oriented enterprises, software enterprises, and design enterprises cannot avoid.

The signal is already clear: the National Copyright Administration has issued the "15th Five Year Plan for Copyright Work", which will study and draft generative artificial intelligence copyright rules. In reality, conflicts have already erupted - some publishing houses have added the phrase "prohibit using the content of this book for artificial intelligence training" on the copyright page, and 22 publishing media organizations have jointly issued a proposal advocating for "authorization before use".

The judicial practice is also following up: in the AI infringement case concluded by the Guangzhou Internet Court, a platform directly outputs pictures that are substantially similar to Altman's works according to user prompts and profits, and is sentenced to infringe the right of reproduction and adaptation. The judicial tendency in our country believes that the copyrightability of AIGC should be judged based on the degree of participation of users (individuals) in the generation process.



This means that companies have two identities to handle:

As a creator, software code, art design, copywriting, and promotional materials should be registered for copyright in a timely manner, and original evidence should be retained to prevent being "washed up" by AI or reverse registered by overseas entities;
2. As an AI user: When training and calling large models, it is necessary to use legitimate source data, clarify the copyright ownership and authorization scope in the contract, and avoid "unintentional infringement".
Enterprise Action Checklist: Establish a habit of leaving traces and registering works; Consolidate copyright ownership through contracts with employees, outsourcing parties, and partners; Review the legality of corpus and training data when using AI tools.



6、 At the end: Going out to sea is the gateway to testing the four lines of defense
The phrase 'Where business goes, intellectual property capabilities must first go' repeatedly appears at this year's annual meeting.

The most fundamental iron rule is that intellectual property has strict regional characteristics. The trademarks, patents, and copyrights you obtain domestically will not automatically be protected overseas. The lessons of brands such as Tongrentang and Hisense being hijacked overseas in the early years are still being repeated today.

So, whether you are dealing with trademarks, domain names, patents, or copyrights, ultimately it all boils down to three words: 'advance quantity'. Market remains unchanged, intellectual property comes first; Before the product is released, the rights will be granted first.



Five general suggestions for enterprises:

1. Trademark: genuine use, evidence retention, full category+multilingual layout, closely monitoring the implementation of the new Trademark Law in 2027;
2. Domain name: Include Chinese domain names and AI variant domain names in the brand asset list, defensive registration+regular monitoring;
3. Patents: Determine patent strategy based on business strategy, complete PCT/Hague layout and risk assessment before going global;
4. Copyright: Creation leaves a mark, cooperation must be signed, and AI use must adhere to the bottom line of "legitimate source";
5. Organizational ability: Cultivate integrated talents who understand technology, law, and management, and transform intellectual property from a "cost center" to a "market accelerator".
Intellectual property is not just a shield, it is also an accelerator for companies to go global, negotiate prices, and generate revenue. The 15th China Intellectual Property Annual Conference tells us that in the new track of the 15th Five Year Plan, only enterprises that will protect and make good use of intellectual property are worthy of winning the future.



Source: Today's Headlines Enterprise Thinking


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