The Anhui Intellectual Property Protection and Promotion Regulation took effect on August 1, 2026, China Intellectual Property News reported on August 12 via the website of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA). Adopted at the 24th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th Anhui Provincial People's Congress, the Regulation is Anhui's first comprehensive local legislation in the intellectual property field. Its enactment, in the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, is described as a key measure for implementing the central government's IP decisions, building an IP-strong province and cultivating new quality productive forces.

Focusing on the cultivation and development of new quality productive forces, the Regulation calls for stronger innovation in key common technologies, frontier-leading technologies, modern engineering technologies and disruptive technologies, and promotes high-value patent layout across traditional, emerging and future industries. Anhui is a constituent unit of the Shanghai (Yangtze River Delta) International Science and Technology Innovation Center and hosts national-level platforms including national laboratories and a comprehensive national science center.

On trade secret protection, the Regulation emphasizes coordination and linkage. Beyond requiring guidance for enterprises, universities and research institutions to establish sound trade secret management systems, it provides that market regulation (intellectual property) departments, human resources and social security departments and judicial organs at or above the county level shall establish a coordination mechanism for trade secret protection — elevating the issue from a single-department responsibility to a multi-department joint effort. In e-commerce, platform operators and exhibition organizers or contractors are required to establish IP protection rules and fast infringement complaint-handling mechanisms.

The Regulation also highlights protection in fields with distinctive local characteristics. Anhui has rich time-honored brand (laozihao) resources, a deep traditional Chinese medicine heritage and diverse folk literature and art traditions; IP administrative departments are directed to strengthen protection and utilization in these areas and to guide relevant entities in using the IP system for inheritance and innovative development.

To foster a 'brand economy,' the Regulation requires governments at or above the county level to strengthen trademark brand building, encouraging market entities to develop trademark brand strategies and to build distinctive, competitive and reputable industrial cluster brands and regional brands. Market entities are encouraged to expand their trademark portfolios overseas and to compete internationally. On geographical indications, the Regulation provides for the publication of GI catalogs and the integration of GIs with specialty industry development, ecological civilization, historical and cultural heritage and rural revitalization.

Original Link: https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/art/2026/8/12/art_55_207682.html