Source: China IP News

"Bike-sharing is convenient for us, and I look forward to more surprises". On August 18, ofo sharing bikes(yellow bikes)showed up on the streets in Seattle, adding flowing bright colors to the city.

Such new type of operation and mode, sharing economy, is landing ininternational markets with promotion from Chinese companies. Chinese sharing bikes can also be found in London in the U.K., San Francisco in the U.S., Fukuoka in Japan. These colorful bikes are becoming a new landscape in these cities.

 "We have specially developed mobile Apps for localmarkets, implemented patent and trademark portfolio and registered copyright, to seize the opportunity", said Grace Lin, vice president of ofo in U.S.. Currently, ofo has filed tens of patent applications and registered over 500 trademarks at home and abroad. As of now, ofo has entered seven countries including Singapore, U.K., U.S., Thailand and interconnected over 8 million of sharing bikes globally via internet, obtaining over 25 million daily orders, which rendering it to be one of the biggest and highest assessed valued bike-sharing platforms in the world.

Mobike, another sharing bikes operator, is no slouch either as ofo. Mobike has filed over 140 patent applications and registered over 180 trademarks at home and abroad. Currently, each Mobike is loaded with "Beidou+GPS+GLONASS" positioning chips and Internet of Things chips. The AI big data platform "Magic Cube" with self-reliant IPRs of Mobike can predict the balance of supply and demand, riding trends and management of intelligent parking, to provide data reference for administrators.

 "Bike-sharing is an emerging form of business, which symbolizes fast developments of sharing economy in China, and also represents innovation and entrepreneurship. Bike-sharing is an 'aggregation' of intellectual property. It cannot grow without IPRs," said Wang Bing to CIP News, Director of IP Law Research Center of Tsinghua University.

Being serious in IPR is becoming the primary concern for Chinese sharing bikes when venturing overseas. There are strong competitors in nearly every overseas market. Both CitiBike from the U.S.and velib from France, for instance, have filed large numbers of patent applications.

As surveys show, the number of users of sharing bikes will reach 198 million in 2021 in China alone,  and the size of the is expected to reach 29.05 billion yuan.The market potential ahead is by no means small. "Therefore, Chinese bike-sharing companies should not only intensify their strength in intellectual property, but also become familiar with overseas market rules in advance before 'stepping out',keeping in mind of both the huge market potential and fierce competition. Building their own IPR landscape may also help secure a smooth and long ride," addedWang, who believed more beautiful pictures for innovation and entrepreneurship can only be painted through such efforts.