North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region held a press conference on April 26 to review the region’s intellectual property work during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20) and introduce key IP-related projects for 2021 and the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25).

In the past five years, 50,800 patents were authorized in Inner Mongolia, and the total number of valid trademark registrations in the region was 240,600.

Meanwhile, Inner Mongolia organized special actions to enforce and protect IP rights. It investigated and dealt with 1,363 trademark infringement and counterfeiting cases valued at 17.79 million yuan.

A total of 1,141 patent counterfeiting cases were investigated and 171 patent infringement dispute cases were handled during the same period. 

From 2018 to 2020, Inner Mongolia released 10 typical cases of administrative protection of IP rights in the region, which resulted in a positive social impact.

In the coming years, Inner Mongolia will make every effort to build the China (Inner Mongolia) Intellectual Property Protection Center.

When the center goes into operation, the approval time of invention patent authorization will be reduced from 36 months to three months, that of utility model patents will be reduced from 12 months to one month, and that of design patents will be reduced from eight months to less than 10 working days.

Moreover, Inner Mongolia will establish the China (Inner Mongolia) Geographical Indication Product Exhibition Center. 

It aims to promote the inclusion of more geographical indication products into the agreement of geographical indications between China and Europe and continuously enhance the international influence and competitiveness of Inner Mongolia's advantageous and characteristic products.