Time-honored brands seeking to transform and break new ground depend on both product and service innovation and robust intellectual property protection. Recently, the Dalian Municipal Market Supervision Administration (Dalian Intellectual Property Office) joined forces with professional intellectual property service organizations to help Dalian's established brands and time-honored enterprises overcome challenges and restore their former luster through "one-on-one" precision services and full-chain support.
A plaque, a storefront, a craft — these time-honored brands carry the memories of a city and its cultural heritage. They are "gold-lettered signs" polished by the years, vivid footnotes to urban commercial change, and valuable assets of high-quality development. As consumer markets continue to evolve, many heritage brands face "growing pains," including complex historical ownership structures, weak trademark protection awareness, and relatively loose brand management. Among these, intellectual property protection serves as the vital cornerstone and core engine for time-honored brands to stay true to their roots, innovate, and break through.
Strengthening intellectual property protection for heritage brands can effectively define property boundaries, safeguard honest business practices, support R&D innovation, and reduce transaction costs. To this end, it is necessary to continuously improve the long-term mechanism for IP protection of time-honored brands. Improving the legal and regulatory framework — by promoting dedicated legislation or regulatory documents for heritage brand protection — can clearly define the boundaries of protection for trademarks, industrial designs, geographical indications, and trade secrets, building a solid institutional "firewall."
Forming a synergy between enforcement and protection through integrated, coordinated mechanisms can drive the upgrading of heritage brand development. Intellectual property, market supervision, commerce, public security, and judicial departments can organize joint meetings and coordinated actions to actively build a collaborative protection network. Raising the cost of infringement and counterfeiting curbs the market disorder of "bad money driving out good," applying operational and market-access restrictions to enterprises and individuals on the blacklist for infringement.
Intellectual property authorities should act as "service providers, advisors, and guardians" for enterprises and brands. Optimizing service delivery through dedicated IP service windows for heritage brands offers professional, efficient public services to solve practical difficulties for companies — fulfilling the "service provider" role. Assisting enterprises with core trademark registration and systematic brand portfolio building clarifies ownership and builds a solid "firewall" for corporate innovation. Partnering with professional service organizations provides guidance in brand planning, trademark protection, and standardized use of geographical indications — fulfilling the "advisor" role. Effectively cracking down on "free-riding" and "passing off" behaviors, intensifying enforcement against online and offline infringement and counterfeiting, and strengthening oversight at exhibitions and e-commerce platforms — fulfills the "guardian" role.
No matter how well-developed the external protection mechanisms are, the efforts of enterprises themselves remain indispensable. Time-honored brands must continuously enhance their capabilities, shifting brand management from loose to refined practices to meet ever-changing consumer demands. By driving forward with a dual engine of quality and innovation, they can achieve "new shoots from old trees," integrating traditional craftsmanship with modern design and technological innovation to generate new patents, copyrights, and products — steadily enriching their intellectual property portfolio.