On May 15, 2026, the inaugural national-level New Cultural and Creative Market and Trendy Toy Park event was launched in Beijing, while the Ministry of Culture and Tourism simultaneously released on a pilot basis the Guidelines for Export Compliance of Cultural and Tourism IP Derivative Products (Trial). This event directly relates to specialized fields such as IP licensing operations, the design and manufacturing of cultural and tourism derivative products, cross-border cultural trade, and overseas compliance services, marking a shift in China’s export management of cultural products from result-based supervision toward full-chain compliance guidance. Relevant enterprises need to systematically assess its impact on licensing procedures, content review, and supply chain response.

Event Overview

Starting from May 15, 2026, Beijing is hosting the inaugural China New Cultural and Creative Market and Trendy Toy Park event. At the same time, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism launched the pilot implementation of the Guidelines for Export Compliance of Cultural and Tourism IP Derivative Products (Trial). The guidelines cover copyright registration, filing for cross-border IP licensing, and security review of cultural content. It has now been confirmed that the procurement teams of Hasbro in the United States and Sanrio in Japan will use these guidelines as a prerequisite review basis for cooperation with Chinese IP owners in the third quarter of 2026.

Which Sub-sectors Will Be Affected

Direct Trading Enterprises

Because the guidelines clearly require cross-border IP licensing to complete filing, and because leading international buyers have listed this as a prerequisite for cooperation, trading enterprises engaged in the export of IP derivative products will face a new compliance checkpoint before contract signing. The main impacts include a longer preparation cycle for licensing documents, greater pressure on response times for overseas customer due diligence, and the possibility that unfiled IP may be excluded from procurement lists.

Processing and Manufacturing Enterprises

As the actual producers of IP derivative products, they usually do not directly participate in licensing contracts, but they need to cooperate by providing product content descriptions, original design files, and compliance statements. The cultural content security review process in the guidelines extends to finished products, which means manufacturing enterprises need to establish an internal preliminary content screening mechanism for export products; otherwise, failure to pass final review may result in full-order returns or customs clearance delays.

Channel Distribution Enterprises

These include cross-border e-commerce platform service providers, overseas warehouse operators, and distribution agencies. Their business depends on the integrity and verifiability of the IP licensing chain. After the guidelines are implemented, channel operators will need to embed filing number verification into product listing reviews; some platforms have already begun requiring suppliers to upload the filing receipt from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism at the same time, otherwise restricting traffic support for new products.

Supply Chain Service Enterprises

These cover copyright agencies, legal consulting, translation and certification, and compliance filing service providers. The structure of their service demand is changing: demand for single copyright registration agency services is weakening, while demand for integrated services combining “registration + filing + pre-check of content review” is increasing. Some China teams of international law firms have already launched rapid response packages for these guidelines, but standardized delivery processes have not yet been formed.

What Key Points Should Relevant Enterprises or Practitioners Pay Attention To, and How Should They Respond at Present

Pay Attention to Subsequent Official Statements or Policy Changes

The current guidelines are a “trial” version, and the scope of application, the launch time of the filing platform, and detailed review standards have not yet been disclosed. Enterprises should continue to monitor announcements on the official website of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the “National Cultural Market Technical Supervision and Service Platform,” especially whether supporting operation manuals or filing system launch notices will be issued before the third quarter of 2026.

Pay Attention to Changes in Key Categories, Key Markets, or Key Business Links

Hasbro and Sanrio have clearly designated this as a prerequisite for Q3 cooperation, indicating that IP derivative products in toys, stationery, and home living categories are the first batch of highly sensitive categories; the European, American, Japanese, and Korean markets will be the first to implement these guideline requirements. If enterprises are involved in the above categories or markets, they should prioritize reviewing the validity of existing licensing agreements and verify whether conditions for supplementary filing are met.

Differentiate Between Policy Signals and Actual Business Implementation

These guidelines are currently pilot in nature and have not yet been included in the mandatory export supervision catalog of the General Administration of Customs or the Ministry of Commerce. Enterprises should not immediately comprehensively revise contract templates or suspend order-taking, but they should reserve a clause in newly signed orders stating that “completion of compliance filing is a condition for effectiveness,” and simultaneously initiate the digitization and organization of internal licensing files.

Make Early Preparations for Procurement, Supply Chain, Communication, or Contingency Plans

It is recommended that IP holders and manufacturers jointly establish a “pre-review checklist for export product content,” covering quantifiable items such as character settings, dialogue text, and visual elements; at the same time, they should confirm in writing with overseas buyers the specific way filing numbers will be used (for example, whether they are only for recordkeeping or embedded into procurement system verification), so as to avoid performance risks caused by misunderstanding.

Editor’s Viewpoint / Industry Observation

显然，这一举措主要起到监管信号的作用，而非立即可执行的标准。两家国际大型授权方已提前采用这一做法，表明中国新兴IP治理框架正获得越来越多的制度性认可——但其实际执行力度仍取决于系统上线和跨部门协调（如与海关或工信部的协同）。从行业角度看，这反映出一种结构性转变：合规不再只是为了避免处罚，而是为了获得进入优质分销渠道的资格。分析表明，仅将其视为法律勾选项的企业，将落后于那些把合规纳入产品开发周期和合作伙伴准入流程的企业。

Conclusion
This launch of the new cultural and creative market and the pilot compliance guidelines is essentially an institutional attempt in the management mechanism for cultural exports. At present, it has not yet constituted a mandatory market entry threshold, but it has already substantively affected the cooperation decision-making logic of leading international buyers. It is more appropriate to understand it as: a “starting point for compliance capability building” for enterprises expanding IP overseas, rather than an administrative order taking immediate effect. Industry participants should adopt a prudent and practical attitude, transforming guideline requirements into operable internal process checkpoints instead of waiting until the policy is fully implemented before responding.

Information Source Notes
Main sources: publicly available pilot information from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China, the official announcement of the inaugural China New Cultural and Creative Market, and the 2026 Q3 procurement cooperation memorandums of Hasbro and Sanrio (cross-verified through third-party industry information sources).
Items pending continued observation: the launch time of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism filing system, detailed implementation rules for review standards, and whether it will expand to non-pilot regions and non-cultural-tourism IP derivative products (such as games and film/television).