Shenzhen Eyewear Intellectual Property Protection Workstation

I. Workstation Overview  

The Shenzhen Eyewear Intellectual Property Protection Workstation was officially inaugurated on 12 May 2023 by the main leaders of the Shenzhen Municipal Government and the Longgang District Government. The workstation is registered with and filed by the Shenzhen Market Supervision Administration; it was established with the support and direct guidance of the Longgang Branch of the Shenzhen Market Supervision Administration, the Longgang District Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, and the Henggang Sub-district Office. It is jointly operated by the Eyewear Professional Committee of the Henggang Chamber of Commerce (Federation of Industry and Commerce) together with local original eyewear designer teams.  

The workstation is a specialized IP service platform dedicated to providing professional intellectual-property services to eyewear enterprises registered in Shenzhen. These services cover trademark, copyright and patent protection, IP rights-confirmation applications, evidence fixation, dispute mediation and rights protection in the processes of design R&D, design-software development, equipment programming, manufacturing, production-tool improvement, and both internal and external market transactions.  

Its purpose is to safeguard the rights and interests of original eyewear designers, stop infringement, intensify efforts to combat infringement, maintain a fair, law-based business environment, assist in the market protection of original designs, attract well-known domestic and international eyewear brands and designers to settle in Shenzhen through IP protection, and thereby promote the high-quality development of the Shenzhen-Henggang eyewear industry.  

II. Workstation Responsibilities  

(1) Publicity and Training: Systematically organize IP-related training for Shenzhen eyewear enterprises and designer teams to raise legal awareness.  
(2) Professional Guidance: Guide eyewear brands and designers in registering and “confirming rights” for original works and popularize knowledge on “rights protection.”  
(3) Professional Examination: Conduct preliminary examination of whether submitted products constitute “works” and whether the evidence is valid.  
(4) Rapid Mediation: Assist applicants in rapid mediation provided that proof of rights is sufficient.  
(5) Rights-Protection Guidance: Based on sufficient proof of rights, advise and guide applicants on different rights-protection options according to their wishes.  
(6) Infringement Appraisal: For products whose infringement is disputed, assist in submitting them to authoritative third-party appraisal institutions and obtain an “Infringement Appraisal Report.”  

III. Main Tasks  

(1) Platform Building  
— In accordance with the development needs of the district’s eyewear industry, jointly establish a professional legal-aid team with the Longgang District Lawyers’ Working Committee; carry out industry-specific legal publicity; build an enterprise legal-aid consultation platform to promote scientific planning and efficient development of IP; establish a professional patent-cultivation team to strengthen patent filing and maintenance in new concepts, new materials, new technologies, new structures and new tools for the eyewear industry; set up a standards-system expert team to provide professional services in management systems, quality certification, production technologies and product standards, so as to promote compliant production and operation.  

(2) Achievement Transfer  
— Provide enterprises with comprehensive pre-stage IP consulting services to effectively reduce the cost of transforming innovation achievements and increase market response speed; enhance IP-protection capacity throughout the entire achievement-transfer process, highlighting services such as patent early-warning, fast examination, fast rights confirmation and fast rights protection; effectively integrate resources and match supply with demand.  

(3) Data Support  
— Build the nation’s first IP digital-certificate system for the eyewear industry, providing government departments with data collection, operational analysis, policy research and dissemination services; deliver strategic consulting, process management and technical support in IP for enterprises, and extend legal services into business, finance, market and financial affairs.  

(4) Talent Development  
— Cultivate and introduce professional IP advisers, establish an eyewear-industry IP talent-training base and an expert database; strengthen cooperation with relevant legal institutions to conduct industry-based popularization and skills-upgrading training; explore an open talent-development model to promote two-way talent exchange and joint training.  

(5) Exchange and Cooperation  
— Under the principle of “going global and bringing in,” actively participate in major domestic and international industry exhibitions, publicize and promote the workstation’s functions, organize supply-and-demand matchmaking activities, attract and cluster professional IP institutions from home and abroad; strive to make the workstation the first-choice service station for international brands to file patents and register trademarks; enhance the radiating capacity and international influence of Shenzhen’s eyewear industry in the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and contribute to the Belt and Road Initiative.