On November 27, directors of IP administrations of six cities under direct administration of Henan Province sign the Agreement of the Six Cities Under Direct Administration of Henan Province on IP (Patent) Law-Enforcement Cooperation (hereafter referred to as the Agreement) and issue the Zhengzhou Declaration, vowing to make joint efforts to create a sound law-enforcement environment for IP protection in the six cities on the Central Plain. Deputy Director of Henan Provincial IP Administration Han Ping participates in the conference.

The six cities under direct administration of Henan Province involved in the Agreement refer to Zhengzhou, Luoyang, Nanyang, Xinxiang, Pingdingshan and Zhumadian. According to the Agreement, measures will be taken to reduce the costs of right holders in safeguarding their rights, improve the efficiency of patent administrative law enforcement and case handling and strengthen cooperation in IP law enforcement in Henan Province in an all round manner so as to create a new prospect for IP law-enforcement work.

According to the Agreement, the six cities will establish the collaboration mechanism, information sharing mechanism, joint law-enforcement mechanism, the mechanism of cooperation on the basis of sharing out the work, talent training mechanism and learning and exchanging mechanism, set up the mechanisms of case acceptance and transfer and mandatory investigation among the six cities, and explore the establishment of evidence affirmation and mutual recognition of patent law-enforcement cases. The Working Conference of IP Protection Law Enforcement will be held annually in the IP administrations of the six cities in turn. Meanwhile, the IP administrations of the six cities also establish the liaison staff system among their member units to strengthen mutual communication work.

The Agreement also stipulates that people who request IP administrations to deal with patent cases can submit their application letters and related evidences and materials to competent IP administrations in other regions and cities through local IP administrations;. Information on penalties or punishments, or decisions of penalty or punishment with legal effects in each of the six cities should be reported to other related cities. On receiving the information, related cities should take measures to eliminate such products of counterfeit and imitation in their respective circulation fields, or prevent them from entering the circulation fields so as to stop the expansion and dissemination of such illegal activities. Seminars of important and difficult cases related to patent administrative law enforcement will be held to constantly improve the capacities of conducting IP law-enforcement collaborations and law-enforcement punishments.