Editor's note: The year 2008 carried great weight for promoting and enforcing the IPR system in China.

In addition to marking the 30th anniversary of China's reforms, it was also the inaugural year for the implementation of the national intellectual property (IP) strategy.

The Chinese IPR system saw 828,328 patent applications and 698,000 applications for trademark registration last year.

After China launched its Compendium of the National Intellectual Property Strategy, the State Intellectual Property Office released a White Paper on China's intellectual property protection and public education efforts in 2008.

The white paper is a summary of last year's report on IPR protection in China and includes eight parts detailing various aspects of intellectual property.

China Business Weekly will publish the full text of the White Paper in a series during the following weeks. The sixth part was published on July 20. Below is the seventh part of the text

VII. IPR Training is Enhanced with a Growing Pool of Expertise.

The year 2008 was a crucial year in implementing the national IP strategy. Further IP training expanded the talent pool for implementing that strategy.

SIPO advanced the Eleventh Five-Year Plan for IP Talents and the Grand Project of IP Talents.

In addition to holding cooperative training programs for top IP law and administration professionals with Tsinghua University and Tongji University, SIPO teamed with foreign educational institutions to train top talents.

SIPO also utilized academic seminars and other efforts to train high-level professionals.

SIPO reported strong results from training programs that also included courses for IP office heads and courses for university instructors.

SIPO commissioned local offices to hold 60 training courses that benefited 10,000 people.

The 653 Project, held jointly by SIPO and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, allowed technical specialists to successfully update their IP knowledge during the year.

SIPO also held a national video lecture on IP issues in partnership with the Ministry of Justice.

SAIC sent officials to the Promotional Conference of the Shanghai Trademark Development and Liaoning Award Conference on Implementation of Branding Strategy, guiding local trademark protection.

SAIC also sent officials to courses offered by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship (AOTS).

Organized by the Japan Patent Office, the courses offered the experiences of advanced countries in International Property Rights (IPR) protection.

Through training courses, skills contests, meetings, experience sharing and case studies, local AICs elevated enforcement officers' skills in handling cases.

In 2008, in an effort to elevate enforcement skills of local agencies in new technologies, NCAC held four series of conferences.

Those series of conferences focused on latest developments in piracy and copyright infringement, introducing participants to practical problems encountered by frontline officials.

Customs offices stressed elevating the skills of customs officers in checking goods for infringement.IPR holders were invited to hold training courses on identifying pirated goods.

The Ministry of Agriculture held training courses on protecting the patents and IP rights in the development of new varieties of plants in 22 provinces, establishing cooperation mechanisms with SAIC, MPS, SIPO and judicial authorities.

SFA on Nov 10 in Beijing held a conference on the enforcement of various rights associated with the research and development of plant varieties.

Attending the meeting were 30 representatives from the Institute of Botany at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Kunming Institute of Botany at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Forestry Academy.

Through seminars on applications of laws and conferences on specific topics, SPC encouraged communications in IP trial knowledge and the improvement of trial skills.

In 2008, SPC held numerous seminars in partnership with other agencies.

Those seminars included the Seminar on Patent Trials, Advanced Seminar on Application of IPR Laws and 2008 International Seminar on IPR Judicial Protection.

SPC also hosted the Seminar on Laws concerning Protection of Well-known Marks, Seminar on IPR Infringement Liability and Seminar on Anti-Monopoly Civil Disputes.

(Source: China Daily)