China's CICASME Signs Memorandum of Cooperation with WIPO on SMEs' International IP Deployment

Recently, China International Cooperation Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (CICASME) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) signed a memorandum of cooperation on enhancing the intellectual property (IP) capacity building of China's SMEs, with a focus on helping the Chinese SMEs through various means to strengthen their awareness and ability of international IP deployment.

The said cooperation with the WIPO is expected to start off with supporting the construction of the Chinese SMEs service network and incorporating into the network WIPO's IP Diagnostics, a self-assessment tool designed to help the businesses identify their IP assets and determine how to protect, manage and leverage these assets to unlock new commercial opportunities, thus enabling the SMEs to set up an effective IP or technology dispute prevention mechanism, and adopt WIPO international rules for dispute resolution. The cooperation also features targeted IP training to facilitate Chinese SMEs in commercialising IP as well as finding potential business partners.

In 2024, according to latest data published by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), 130,000 of the high-value inventions patents granted in China, involving 16,000 innovative entities, were also granted patent rights overseas.

Founded in 1990, CICASME is the first national social organisation for small and medium-sized enterprises in China. It has more than 30,000 members, and has established substantive cooperative relations with business associations in more than 30 countries and regions around the world.