Illustration: Xia Qing/GT

Recently, at the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Protection Service Center in Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang Province, a business owner successfully completed an application with the Madrid System for global trademark protection covering 50 countries, including the US, Germany and Spain, in a single visit. "I didn't expect it could be handled here, and all the applications could be completed at once. There's no need to run around anymore," the entrepreneur said with surprise, according to a report on Yiwu Fabu on Sunday. 

The center, often referred to by enterprises as an "IPR supermarket," has reduced the costs and barriers of brand building and IPR protection for Chinese enterprises in overseas markets amid a rapid shift in China's export model - from exporting manufactured goods to exporting brands and intellectual property. This illustrates how China's "world supermarket" is improving the efficiency of its institutional infrastructure to support the globalization of local brands.

What stands behind this improving efficiency is an increasing practical demand. Yiwu is home to more than 2.1 million types of products exported to more than 230 countries and regions. According to latest data, the city recorded 439 new customs IPR filings for proprietary intellectual property in the first two months of this year, up more than 76 percent year-on-year, while exports of self-owned brands rose by 70 percent.

At the national level, China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 2.75 trillion yuan ($402 billion) in 2025, up 69.7 percent compared with 2020, according to data from the General Administration of Customs. Behind this rapid expansion is a structural shift among Chinese firms from exporting manufactured goods to building and exporting their own brands, driving a corresponding surge in demand for overseas trademark registration and intellectual property protection.

Behind Yiwu's "IPR supermarket" also lies a broader structural adjustment taking place in global supply chains and consumer markets, alongside a shift in the logic of competition.

Industrial upgrading is increasingly driven by evolving consumer trends and technology development. While price and manufacturing advantages once defined Yiwu's competitiveness, many local industries are now seeking to add value through innovation in both cultural content and technology.

As China's manufacturing strengths - represented by Yiwu's small-commodity clusters - merge with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, the smart research and development (R&D) and smart manufacturing model rapidly improves product quality and better meets the evolving demands of international consumers.

According to Yiwu Shangbao, the 2026 China Yiwu International Daily Necessities Innovation Expo is currently underway, featuring the concept of intelligent R&D and intelligent manufacturing as a key theme. The exhibition has attracted 800 manufacturers from 18 provincial-level regions across China, showcasing tens of thousands of new products.

Behind this shift toward higher value-added innovation lies rising R&D investment, which in turn requires stronger IPR protection services. Products are increasingly moving from purely functional tools and toys toward carriers of emotional value, reflecting growing demand among younger consumers worldwide for aesthetic consumption and emotional value.

According to a report by local media outlet Tidenews.com, Yiwu-based company KUKI, with annual sales of 150 million yuan, invests about 6 million yuan in R&D and employs a design team of 60 people. Another firm, Dingbang Stationery, with annual sales of 30 million yuan, invests about 3 million yuan annually in product development and design.

The new development trend emerging from Yiwu's "IPR supermarket" reflects a substantially improved capacity in China for brand building and trademark protection, alongside a rapid shift from exporting manufactured goods to exporting brands and intellectual property.

For instance, earlier this year, when the "crying horse" toy from Yiwu went viral online, Yiwu's Intellectual Property Rights Protection Service Center quickly contacted the business involved and helped it complete international trademark registration, securing protection in key export markets such as South Africa and Russia.

The Yiwu practice illustrates how infrastructure supporting brand development is increasingly embedded within local trade systems, rather than treated as a downstream legal function. This trend is expected to further integrate IPR protection services into companies' efforts to help brands go global, opening greater space for China's exports in the evolving international market landscape.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn