On April 20, the Information Office of the People's Government of Yunnan Province and the Joint Meeting Office for Implementing the Intellectual Property Right Strategy of Yunnan People's Government jointly launched the Opening Ceremony of 2021 Yunnan IP Publicity Week & Press Conference in Kunming. The theme of this week-long event (April 20-26) is "Enhancing Intellectual Property Protection Comprehensively, Striving to Build the New Development Paradigm".

Fang Tao, member of the Leading Party Member's Group of Yunnan Administration for Market Regulation and Director of Intellectual Property Office of Yunnan Province, reported to the media the progress Yunnan made in IP work during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. He said that during the last five years, Yunnan has comprehensively deepened reforms in the IP field, strengthened IP protection by law, given full play to the role of the IP system in encouraging innovation and seen innovative development in IP cause across the province, which strongly supported the high-quality leapfrog development of the province. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, according to the report, a total of 97,900 patents were granted, and the number of valid invention patents amounted 15,600, a growth of 167% and 105% compared with that in the 12th Five-Year Plan period, respectively; the number of registered trademarks reached 435,000, a growth of 217% compared with that in the 12th Five-Year Plan period; there were accumulatively 282 registered GI trademarks, a growth of 115% compared with that in the 12th Five-Year Plan period; and the accumulative number of new plant varieties of agriculture and forestry granted was 772.

Fang underlined that in the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Yunnan Province will increase efforts to build the work pattern of "strict, broad, quick and equal protection" in line with the requirements of the "five relationships" and "six aspects" proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping for enhancing IP protection. The IP development program of Yunnan Province for the 14th Five-Year Plan period will be formulated based on scientific strategic planning. More efforts will be made to strengthen trans-department cooperation, promote the connection of administrative enforcement and civil and criminal judicial adjudication and intensify protection in key areas. The efficiency of IP commercialization and utilization will be improved by launching GI utilization promotion projects and projects to build enterprises and counties strong on IP. The construction of IP public service system will be strengthened to further enhance the comprehensive service capacity. And international exchanges and cooperation will be intensified to carry out foreign-related IP talent training and develop an international IP portfolio.(Translated from CNIPA Website Chinese Version)