China and the United States vowed to increase their intellectual property rights (IPR) exchange and cooperation on Wednesday.

China upgraded its IPR protection system into a national strategy to build a nation based on innovation, deputy international trade representative at China's Ministry of Commerce Chong Quan said as China's Overseas IPR Exchange Tour and the 2nd China-US International Cooperation Forum on IPR opened in Washington.

The State Council in 2011 established the national leading group on combating IPR infringement and manufacturing and sales of fake and shoddy commodities, headed by Vice-Premier Wang Qishan, thus forming a long-term IPR protection mechanism, he said.

All China's government departments at central and provincial levels are already using licensed software and authorities at and above county level will comply by the end of 2013, according to Chong.

He called for strengthening IPR protection cooperation between China and the United States and injecting more energy into bilateral economic and trade relationships.

In the first seven months of this year, China's administrative enforcement agencies filed 189,300 cases involving 5.05 billion yuan ($800.38 million), and destroying 10,474 IPR infringement and counterfeiting operation centers. Meanwhile, police solved 28,000 cases involving 7.35 billion yuan and arrested 35,825 suspects, said Hu Shuang, an official at China's Ministry of Commerce.

US Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property David Kappos said China had made tremendous efforts in IPR protection after joining WTO and called for better laws on IPR protection.

"Both of our governments recognize innovation is critical in the 21st century. A strong IP protection is the key part of any society's innovative activity," Kappos said, "China and the US together developed a robust cooperation on IP protection across all areas of creative pursuit."

In order to boost global economic recovery, as the largest developing country and largest developed country, China and the US have the responsibility to continue to implement a free trade policy, and restrain from trade protectionism, Chong said.

Statistics from China indicate that bilateral trade in the first eight months of this year reached $313 billion, a 9.6 percent increase year-on-year. During that time, China imported $86.6 billion worth of commodities and technologies from the US, an increase of 8 percent over last year.

(Source: China Daily)