THE Data Research Report on the Innovation of Shenzhen Garment Industry Intellectual Property was officially released at the GBA Fashion Summit 2021 on Friday at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center in Futian District. The report was said to be the first of its kind in China that studies Shenzhen’s garment industry chain and specifically discusses intellectual property protection issues.

Addressing the release conference, Jin Kesheng, vice president of the China Intellectual Property Law Research Association, said that Shenzhen is the innovation and creativity capital of China and the leader of intellectual property protection and operation. Jin said that the report contains a large amount of information and fills the gap of statistical analysis of intellectual property innovation data in the garment industry, which reflects the value and power of intellectual property and shares Shenzhen’s prototype and experience in the development of the industry.

The report’s more than one hundred pages is divided into five parts: Overview of the development of Shenzhen garment industry, patent innovation data, trademark innovation data, copyright innovation data, and strategies and suggestions for the protection of intellectual property. The detailed report focuses on the changes in the innovation development of intellectual property rights (IPR) in the Shenzhen garment industry over the past decade and shows the resource advantages, technical advantages and main advantages of the innovation development of the industry.

The report also disclosed for the first time the big data of intellectual property rights of the garment industry, which shows that as of the end of December 2020, the accumulated domestic valid registered trademarks of Shenzhen garment industry was 110,277. The strong trademark resource reserve creates a solid foundation for enterprises to layout their plans in the brand market.

Wang Yue, executive vice president of the Shenzhen Intellectual Property Federation, said, “The entire industry’s awareness and understanding of IPR protection has become much stronger, and enterprises are more proactive to protect the fruits of innovation.”

Shenzhen-based Yinger Fashion Group was mentioned many times in the report as case examples of companies committed to the protection and good use of IPR.

According to the patent data in the report, between 2011 and 2020, there were only three Shenzhen garment companies with over 300 patent applications, and Yinger ranked first with 782, which was far ahead in the industry.

In terms of sales data translated from patents, as early as 2016, Yinger Fashion Group’s product sales created by the industrialization of patented technology and patented products exceeded half of its annual sales, resulting in the group taking a leading position in the industry in China.

The report points out that to be on the top of the global garment value chain, the Shenzhen garment industry cluster must map out strategies in such aspects as intellectual property creation, application, protection, management, international market, policy, and actively establish an innovation ecosystem for the industry in the future.

Huang Yaying, director of Shenzhen University’s school of intellectual property, noted that the traditional thinking concept is to protect tangible assets, but the awareness of the protection of intangible assets such as the results of intellectual innovation has been strengthened in recent years.

“Shenzhen has been at the forefront of intellectual property protection in the country but lags behind advanced countries. Shenzhen should make greater contributions in establishing an innovation ecosystem for the garment industry.”(Yang Mei)