China Delegation Spotlights Public-Private Collaboration on Brand Protection

In early September, an INTA leadership delegation traveled to Beijing and Shanghai to engage with government authorities, judicial institutions, and INTA’s member community in one of the world’s most influential markets for innovation, brands, and intellectual property (IP).

Online IP protection now sits at the intersection of market regulation, IP administration, and criminal enforcement. Throughout the week, INTA worked to close the gap between public and private perspectives in both directions—carrying brand owner experience into policy and enforcement dialogue and bringing INTA’s global network and expertise to brands and institutions in China.

Engaging Policymakers and Enforcement Authorities

The first aspect of this approach shaped the delegation’s engagement with the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP), building on more than two decades of cooperation on trademark protection and anticounterfeiting.

At SAMR, the delegation met with the Department of Online Transaction Supervision, which co-leads the drafting of amendments to China’s E-Commerce Law. The delegation introduced INTA’s global anticounterfeiting initiatives and shared the Association’s comments on the draft, including its support for extending regulatory coverage to social media, livestreaming, and content-commerce platforms. Drawing on members’ practical experience, the discussion underscored the need for regulatory frameworks to evolve alongside emerging digital business models.

The same approach carried into the delegation’s meeting with the Intellectual Property Procuratorate Department at the SPP, which followed the SPP’s first-time participation in INTA’s China Enforcement Update session at the 2026 Annual Meeting in London, United Kingdom. The delegation introduced INTA’s work on frontier issues, including the Association’s research on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the likelihood-of-confusion analysis, and shared brand owner practices and perspectives on civil litigation incidental to criminal proceedings.

Engaging China’s IP Community

INTA delivered a keynote address at the main forum of the 15th China Intellectual Property Annual Conference in Beijing, one of the region’s largest annual IP gatherings, which brought together thousands of IP officials, industry leaders, and international organizations, including the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The presentation highlighted the growing importance of intangible assets, the role of brands as a foundation of consumer trust and economic growth, and INTA’s perspectives on responsible AI development within the IP ecosystem.

At the same conference, INTA hosted a session to release the final reports of the third installment of its Know Before You Go series, the Association’s flagship Mandarin-language resource supporting Chinese businesses as they expand internationally. Developed by INTA member volunteers, the series now covers more than 40 jurisdictions across three installments and has expanded beyond trademarks to include patents, industrial designs, and copyright, turning the collective experience of the global IP community into practical guidance for Chinese brands going global.

That public-private collaboration was equally visible in Shanghai, where a well-attended INTA workshop brought local market regulators, courts, and procuratorates together with brand owners to exchange views on the increasingly integrated role of IP in business and the cross-functional collaboration across business units needed to sustain corporate growth.

Looking Ahead

The visit underscored INTA’s distinctive role as a bridge connecting China’s IP community with the global innovation ecosystem—bringing together policymakers, brand owners, platforms, and IP professionals to address challenges that no single stakeholder can resolve alone. As digital commerce evolves and AI transforms the IP landscape, INTA remains committed to fostering open and pragmatic dialogue, sharing expertise across jurisdictions, and strengthening connections between public authorities and private enterprise on which durable brand protection depends.

INTA’s China Representative Office, based in Beijing, represents the Association’s members in China. Working in collaboration with staff at INTA’s headquarters in New York City, the China Representative Office leads the Association’s policy, membership, marketing, and communications initiatives in this jurisdiction. To learn more about INTA’s activities in China, please contact INTA Chief Representative for China, Monica Su, and follow us on WeChat.

Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of this article, readers are urged to check independently on matters of specific concern or interest.

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