Source: China IP News

Beijing city in April is filled with greenery and flowers. Australian Embassy in China has the first oversea IP Counsellor, David Bennett. Bennett has been living in China for nearly half a year since he took office in last December. "Not only is China Australia's largest trading partner, but also the main overseas destination for Australian trademark applicants and the third largest overseas destination for Australian patent applicants. My new role as Australian intellectual property (IP) Counsellor to China is IP Australia's first overseas posting, which demonstrates the importance of Australia's relationship with China." From Bennett's eyes, China is an innovative country, which demonstrates a promising IPR undertaking.

Bennett has ever worked as IP Director in a start-up company, a patent examiner at IP Australia and now is working in IP Australia's international and domestic policy sections. Bennett hopes to lift IP collaboration to a new level by his efforts, with the knowledge obtained from practice experience, technical background and policy work. He notes that "China is aware of the value of IP and its importance to China's next stage of economic development. China is striving to become a powerful IP nation by encouraging innovation and the appropriate use of IP rights, and by strengthening the enforcement of IP. There are still challenges, but much progress has been made."

When asked about his role as IP Counsellor, Bennett said "There are two main aspects to my role: government work on IP policy matters, and providing guidance to Australian businesses. These two activities are complementary and help inform one another. I enjoy the stimulation of working on complex policy matters as well as the satisfaction of helping Australian businesses to succeed in bringing their high quality products and innovative technologies to China," said Bennett.

"To celebrate World IP Day this year, IP Australia is highlighting Australia's inventions that have profoundly improved people's lives on a global scale. This includes ultrasound scanners, artificial pacemakers, and Wi-Fi technology. World IP day will also see the release of IP Australia's annual flagship publication, the Australian Intellectual Property Report 2017. The report promotes awareness of IP rights, and discusses the latest Australian IP statistics and IP Australia initiatives,"he adds.

"IP Australia aims to be a world-leading intellectual property office, providing high quality search and examination services for IP rights applicants. As for IP commercialization, IP Australia also provides value-add services such as Source IP, which provides businesses an easier way to find and access technology generated by Australia's public research sector. Another value-add service is IP Australia's Patent Analytics Hub. The Hub provides tailored IP analytics services directly to Australian research organizations and government departments by analyzing and interpreting data included in patent documents. This service is complemented by IP Australia's leading role in open-data whereby IP Australia makes all its administrative data freely available, allowing anyone to analyze and explore the Australian IP landscape."