Suzhou supports enterprises' global expansion with multifaceted legal services

As cross-border e-commerce becomes a new engine for foreign trade growth, intellectual property rights (IPR) protection has emerged as a prominent challenge for Chinese enterprises transitioning from exporting products to building global brands.

To further promote the healthy development of the cross-border e-commerce sector, the Justice Bureau of Changshu, a county-level city under the administration of Suzhou in East China's Jiangsu province, has issued guidelines on IPR protection for cross-border e-commerce enterprises. Under the initiative "Legal Services Empowering Cross-Border E-Commerce to Set Sail", the bureau has also established a legal service sharing platform that offers enterprises comprehensive, one-stop legal services, covering risk alerts, compliance reviews, and dispute resolution.

Enterprises' challenges in cross-border e-commerce have become a priority of Changshu's legal service efforts. As part of the in-depth implementation of a special campaign that integrates legal services with the industrial chain, Changshu has set up a dedicated legal service workstation and a specialized legal service team for cross-border e-commerce. This team includes experienced lawyers proficient in IPR and international trade rules, providing targeted and efficient legal services to enterprises.

These proactive measures have significantly enhanced enterprises' capacity to prevent risks in cross-border operations, effectively bridged the gap between foreign-related legal services and cross-border e-commerce development, and steadily improved the law-based business environment, injecting strong legal momentum into the city's cross-border e-commerce industry.

In recent years, the Justice Bureau of Suzhou has accelerated the integration of legal service resources and advanced the city's foreign-related rule of law. It has introduced implementation plans for building demonstration zones for foreign-related legal service clusters, organized promotional events in major economic hubs such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, and attracted renowned domestic and international legal service institutions. By integrating multiple legal resources including litigation, arbitration, and mediation, the justice bureau has established a one-stop dispute resolution center to provide full-process solutions for enterprises.

Currently, the Suzhou Free Trade Zone Legal Service Center has attracted nearly 60 legal service institutions. This has helped advance specialized foreign-related legal services in the city's Gusu district, as well as county-level cities Taicang and Kunshan, forming an interconnected demonstration network across Suzhou's central business districts and ensuring a high-quality law-based environment for global enterprises operating in the city.

In addition, the Justice Bureau of Suzhou has formed a legal service team of 86 foreign-related lawyers dedicated to stabilizing foreign trade. The team provides guidance for enterprises in standardizing and diversifying operations, optimizing costs, and facilitating market transitions. Meanwhile, team members have been dispatched to engage with legal resources in target destinations, including delivering local lectures on investment policies and legal risk prevention, and drafting six key country-specific legal service guides. These efforts have reinforced the broader campaign to provide legal support for local enterprises expanding overseas.