CCTV News: China Automobile Technology Research Center released the "2025 China Automobile Overseas Intellectual Property Protection Research Report" on May 17, which provides professional guidance for Chinese auto companies to better move to overseas markets.
The report shows that the proportion of overseas patent applications in my country's independent automobile brands accounts for about 30% of the total number of patent applications, of which the proportion of valid patents increased by 12 percentage points year-on-year to 47%, indicating that independent brands' innovation ability to go overseas is constantly improving.
The reporter learned that this report also focuses on the patent layout and litigation status of the global automobile market. Compared with the top 100 domestic and foreign patent applications, it was found that when my country's independent brand car companies laid out overseas through the Patent Cooperation Treaty, nearly 50% of their patents did not enter the target country, which was a certain gap with multinational car companies. Experts said that the layout of patents for car companies going overseas should be implemented accurately, with the focus on three "synchronization", simultaneously understanding the local intellectual property environment and policy orientation, simultaneously establishing patent litigation and patent licensing teams, and simultaneously connecting with local overseas intellectual property resources, and ultimately achieving the improvement of overseas patents from quantity to quality.
Experts: Protecting overseas intellectual property rights requires attention to the three core points
The pace of China's automobile "going overseas" is accelerating, and the challenges in the field of intellectual property rights are becoming increasingly prominent. Experts remind that we should focus on intellectual property protection in three aspects: patents, trademarks and copyrights.
First of all, patent infringement is the primary risk. For example, an intelligent connected car may involve thousands of patents. In the entire process from product research and development design, production and manufacturing to overseas market expansion, the meticulousness of patent layout is crucial. Some companies have encountered insufficient research on the patent situation in the target market in the early stage, and have even faced legal disputes due to patent issues.
Secondly, trademark protection also needs to be paid attention to, among which trademark infringement and trademark registration are the two major risks. Since trademark rights have regional characteristics, completing the trademark registration of the target market in advance is the key to avoiding brand disputes.
In addition, copyright risks cannot be ignored. Taking the field of product design as an example, creative elements such as car body lines, logos and interior design are all important factors that attract consumers. Experts stress that the original protection of these design elements cannot be ignored. Unauthorized use of other people's designs may constitute copyright infringement.
From passive to active building an intellectual property defense system
Facing with the rising trend of international trade protectionism, my country's auto companies are changing their strategies, from passive to active, and actively building a full-chain intellectual property protection system. Experts remind that although my country's overseas litigation disputes are mainly focused on the field of automotive parts, we need to be wary of the potential patent risks of key core technologies of automobiles.
In the future, automobile overseas travel will be a dual competition of "product strength + intellectual property rights". Chinese car companies should pay attention to early warning and response to infringement risk prevention and control, increase the layout of overseas high-value patents, and at the same time integrate patent strategies into the process of globalization. Experts also pointed out that the automotive industry, especially the new energy vehicle field, should establish a mechanism for responding to cross-border intellectual property disputes as soon as possible, integrate resources from governments, enterprises, and law firms, improve the supply of overseas intellectual property information, use insurance and other means to reduce the cost of overseas rights protection of enterprises, make full use of service support from third-party professional institutions, and build a more flexible global intellectual property defense system.
