Senior Officials from the European Commission, the European Union Delegation to China, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, and Academic Representatives from Peking University came together on Wednesday to launch the 'Europe IP Law Search' – a new addition to the widely-used legal search tool, 'China IP Law Search'.

The China IP Law Search, launched in 2009, provided for the first time a comprehensive, free-of-charge and bilingual collection of legal references relevant to intellectual property protection in China. The tool is now being extended to include Europe-wide IP legislation and will broaden the user-base of business associations, companies, lawyers, academics, students and authorities. By helping users to find and access legal resources in their daily work, the EU-China 'IP Law Search' aims to be a valuable source of information for everybody working, studying or simply interested in the legal IP environment in China and the EU. The launch also shows the significant progress being made on Intellectual Property Rights cooperation between China and the European Union, and as a result it will benefit the business and economic exchanges between China and the EU businesses.

Mr Koos Richelle, Director-General of the EuropeAid Co-operation Office and Mr Serge Abou, Ambassador of the EU Delegation to China together with Mr Yang Guohua, Deputy Director-General of the Ministry of Commerce of P.R China introduced the new features of the tool and explained how it fits into the overall picture of strengthening connections between China and the EU in both the IP field and economic relations in general.

Mr Richelle explained that "The European Commission strongly pursues transparency of its IP protection systems. Making available European IP laws and regulations to Chinese users increases transparency and facilitates access to the European market." He also emphasised the importance of the IP Law Search for industry. "The EU's investment in its co-operation with China aims at supporting business in using their intellectual property rights as a value creating business asset, making new market opportunities possible. IP Law Search can serve to meet the increasing information needs of IP right holders, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Mr Yang said "MOFCOM welcomes the launch of Europe IP Law Search and also hopes this new legal platform will be helpful to better understanding the EU IPR legal system". Mr Yang also spoke highly of the Chinese IP Law Search launched last year and emphasised how China and the EU would continue to cooperate to promote communication and understanding between each other.
Furthermore, IP Law Search contributes to raising public awareness of the importance and scope of intellectual property protection by providing direct access to information on the legal framework that supports it.

The EU-China IPR2 Project is a partnership initiative launched in 2007 between the European Union and China on the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR). With more than EUR16 million in joint funding over 4 years to 2011, IPR2 aims to strengthen the enforcement of IPR by targeting the reliability, efficiency and accessibility of the IP protection system in China. This is done by closely co-operating with and providing technical support to the different levels of the Chinese legislative, judicial, administrative and enforcement authorities.

(Source: People's Daily Online)