1. Foreign-related IPR Coordination

In 1999,SIPO further strengthened its coordination mechanism with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the National Copyright Administration and other related Departments. SIPO implemented its foreign-related IPR coordination functions at both the multi-and bi-lateral levels.

1) From January 26-28,1999,Dr. Kamil Idris, the Director General of WIPO, visited China at the invitation of SIPO. This was the first time Dr. Idris visited China in his capacity as Director General of WIPO. President Jiang Zemin met Dr. Idris and his party at Diaoyutai State Guest House on January 27. Participants of the meeting included Jiang Ying, Commissioner of SIPO, her Deputy Commissioner Ma Lianyuan, Wang Zhongfu, Commissioner of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, Yu Youxian, Commissioner of the National Copyright Administration and Yang Jiechi, Vice Foreign Minister. During his stay in Beijing, Dr. Idris visited the State Intellectual Property Office, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the National Copyright Administration, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Dr. Idris also accepted with pleasure an honorary professorship of Peking University. On behalf of WIPO, Dr.Idris presented a set of WIPO publications to the China Intellectual Property Training Center.

2) SIPO negotiated with Uzbekistan government an Intellectual Property Protection Agreement between the Government of the People's Republic of China and The Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan. On November 8,1999, Commissioner Jiang Ying and the Vice-Premier of Uzbekistan signed the agreement.

3) Communication between SIPO and UPOV was formally established in 1999.In October, SIPO, together with representatives from the State Forestry Administration and the Ministry of Agriculture, attended the 40th session of the Administrative and Legal committee, the 58th session of the Consultative Committee, and the 33rd ordinary session of the Permanent Council.

4)In cooperation with the American Embassy in China, SIPO successfully organized a Sino-U.S.intellectual property enforcement exchange programme in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The participants on the Chinese side included representatives from the National Copyright Administration, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the State Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, the State Administration for Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China, the Ministry of Public Security, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council, the Development Research Center of the State Council and China Consumer Association.

These above activities deepened American participants' understanding of intellectual property enforcement and protection in China. Related Chinese institutions responsible for intellectual property enforcement also learned some advanced experience in enforcement from their American counterparts. Both parties unanimously agreed that further exchange and cooperation in the future was necessary and would benefit the promotion of enforcement and protection of intellectual property rights on both sides.

2. Multilateral Cooperation

In 1999,friendly relations of cooperation between SIPO and WIPO were further strengthened. From March 23-25,the WIPO Asian Regional Symposium on Intellectual Property and Information Technology,  was co-organized by SIPO and WIPO and held in Beijing. Representatives from 18 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and WIPO attended the symposium. Representatives from related domestic departments also attended. Symposium subjects included: implication of modern information technology on the intellectual property system and the specific features, the challenges and opportunities facing developing countries deriving from the WIPO net, information technologies and the global net environment.

On June 14,Ma Lianyuan, Deputy Commissioner of SIPO, reached a primary common understanding with the Deputy Director General of WIPO and the Acting Director of WIPO's World Academy. Cooperation between the China Intellectual Property Training Center and the WIPO World Academy in the field of online teaching, training of trainers, and capacity-based training would be conducted.

From June 14-18,SIPO, in cooperation with WIPO, jointly held WIPO Seminar on Intellectual Property and Development. This is the first time to organize such a high level seminar outside its headquarter in Geneva. There were altogether 13 representatives from 12 countries all over Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceanica. Mr. Roberto Castelo, Deputy Director General of WIPO, SIPO Commissioner Jiang Ying and Deputy Commissioner Ma Lianyuan attended the opening ceremony held in China Intellectual Property Training Center in Beijing. On July 1,SIPO formally started receiving PCT-EASY.

From June 16-July 6,SIPO's representatives attended the diplomatic conference on the new version of Hague Agreement concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs, convened by WIPO in Geneva.

From September 19-29,the Chinese governmental delegation, headed by SIPO's Commissioner Jiang Ying and her Deputy Ma Lianyuan, participated in the 34th series of meetings of the Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO held in Geneva, Switzerland. Commissioner Jiang Ying, on behalf of the Chinese delegation, delivered a speech at the meeting. In her speech, she gave a comprehensive introduction to new developments in China's intellectual property work, reiterated the Chinese government's firm stand on and policies of reform, opening up, and IPR protection, expressed the wish to further develop its friendly relationship of cooperation with WIPO and with other countries. Also at the conference, Commissioner Jiang Ying was elected as the Vice Chairman
of the session on Locarno Agreement Establishing an International Classification for Industrial Designs. The conference reviewed and unanimously approved the Chinese delegation's motion regarding adoption of the Chinese text of Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. At the conference, the Chinese delegation also put forwarded another motion concerning establishing a "World Intellectual Property Day", and won enthusiastic support from many countries. During the conference, Dr. Idris, the Director General and his three Deputies met the SIPO delegation and exchanged views on further enhancement of all aspects of bilateral cooperation, in particular in the field of long-distance teaching. In October, SIPO and WIPO jointly held International Symposium on Intellectual Property and Knowledge based Economy in Beijing. On October 13,Premier Zhu Rongji met Dr. Idris and his delegation at Ziguangge in Zhongnanhai.

3. Bilateral Cooperation

In 1999,SIPO continued to deepen bilateral cooperation with Japan, Korea, Thailand, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Austria, Russia, Bulgaria and European Patent Office. Moreover, new cooperative activities were also initiated under the framework of EU China IPR Cooperation Project (the working plan for year 2000 was already approved).

On January 19,a bilateral meeting was held between the Intellectual Property Department of Thailand and SIPO, and the Minutes of the Meeting between the Department of Intellectual Property of Thailand and the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China was signed.

In April, Deputy Commissioner Wu Boming attended the Centennial Anniversary of the establishment of Austrian Patent Office in Austria.

On May 4,Commissioner of the Japanese Patent Office Takeshi Isayama visited SIPO, during which the sixth joint meeting was held between him and SIPO's Commissioner Jiang Ying. The two parties signed the Record of Discussion between the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China and Japanese Patent Office.

From May 9-22,Deputy Commissioner Ma Lianyuan headed a delegation to visit the United States. During the visit, the delegation reached an agreement with John Marshall Law School on co-training of masters of law in intellectual property.

In June, the Finance Survey Delegation, headed by Deputy Commissioner Yang Zhengwu, visited WIPO, EPO, and German Patent and Trademark Office.

In July, Deputy Commissioner Wu Boming headed a delegation to visit the United Kingdom Patent Office (UKPO) and French Industrial Property Office (INPI) for the purpose of attending the fourth Sino-UK joint working committee meeting and the fourteenth Sino-France joint committee meeting on patent work. During the meetings, SIPO delegation signed an agreement on implementing cooperative activities in the year 2000 with the two offices respectively.

From July 4-14,one SIPO delegation visited Japan and had some professional exchanges with the Japanese Patent Office.

From September 4-14,the President of the Austrian Patent Office visited SIPO for attending the joint committee meeting. The two offices signed a bilateral cooperative agreement for the year 2000.

From September 12-17,Commissioner Jiang Ying headed the delegation to visit the Italian Patent and Trademark Office, the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office. The delegation exchanged views and opinions with the Spanish counterparts on issues such as building up a formal cooperative relationship.

From September 12-23,a SIPO study group visited the Japan patent office where the group members inspected their host's electronic application system.

On November 16,Deputy Commissioner Ma Lianyuan, on behalf of SIPO, attended commemoration ceremony for the Centennial Anniversary of Japan's Accession to the Paris Convention in Japan.

From November 17-22, the EPO President Ingo Kober visited SIPO where he attended the tenth joint committee meeting. At the meeting, the Agreed Minutes on technical cooperation between the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China and The European Patent Office was signed. During the visit, President Kober also visited SIPO's Patent Documentation Library, the Central Computer House, and watched with interest an examiner's demonstration of EPOQUE search through the EPOQUE search system installed in SIPO.

From December 5-11,Commissioner Jiang Ying visited Korea where she attended the Sixth Commissioners Meeting between Korean Industrial Property Office and State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China, together with her counterpart the President of Korean Industrial Property Office. At the meeting the two heads signed the Record of Discussion. Besides, discussions were also held between the SIPO delegation and International Intellectual Property Training Institute of Korean Industrial Property Office, Korean Patent Attorney's Association, Korean Woman's Invention Association.

4. Other Activities

On February 4,the U.S.Trade Delegation (8 persons)visited SIPO, at which views and information were exchanged between the two sides on Sino-US IPR issues and SIPO's new functions assigned in the organizational restructuring.

On May 27,Director Chen limin, from the Macao Special Administrative Region government visited SIPO and held a meeting with Commissioner Jiang Ying and Deputy Commissioner Ma Lian Yuan.

From June 21-30,Deputy Commissioner Wu Boming headed a delegation to visit Taiwan for attending a conference ou Theories and Practices in Patent and Trademark Protection on both sides of the Taiwan Straits.

On July 23,Tan Rongbang, Deputy Director of the Beijing Representative Office of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, visited SIPO.

From August 30-September 12,the Chinese Patent Exhibition Fair was organized in the United States. Mr. Guo Xiaodong, Deputy Commissioner of SIPO, addressed the opening ceremony. During the fair, a Sino-US intellectual property symposium was also convened, at which Mr. Guo delivered a speech introducing the present situation and developments in China's patent protection. On October 21,a delegation of Japanese Intellectual Property Society visited SIPO. Commissioner Jiang Ying and Deputy Commissioner Ma Lianyuan met the delegation.

On October 29,Commissioner Jiang Ying met visiting Executive Director Ma Nanxian and the Secretary-general Zhan Zhaofen of Taiwan Asia-Pacific Intellectual Property Development Found.

On November 10,Stephen Selby, Director of the Intellectual Property Department under the Hong Kong government, visited SIPO. Commissioner Jiang Ying and Deputy Commissioner Ma Lianyuan met Director Selby. Both sides briefed each other on developments and information in the field of intellectual property and exchanged opinions on jointly organizing a Hong Kong and Inland Symposium on intellectual property protection.

2013-07-17