Invited by the European Patent Office (EPO) and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), Deputy Commissioner Tian Lipu attended the Europe-Asia Heads of Intellectual Property Offices Conference (the Conference) and visited the Singapore office from November 17 to 22, 2003. 

Over 50 participants, including officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, EPO, United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Japan Patent Office and Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and Working Group of ASEAN Intellectual Property Cooperation, introduced their future plan and strategy in developing intellectual property systems and shared experiences in automation.  At the conference, Deputy Commissioner Tian delivered two speeches, Policy and Strategy for Intellectual Property Management in a Development Prospective -Practice and Experience of China, and Status Quo and Perspective of the Chinese Patent Information System.  He elaborated China's intellectual property system, future plan and the development of SIPO's information system. 

On the second day of the Conference, the participants exchanged views on international cooperation, challenges in IP field faced by Asia, future cooperation between IP offices of the ASEAN countries and other national and regional offices.  The participants also focused on the two major challenges faced by many offices, tackling examination backlog and international harmonization.  Two directions for cooperation were drawn, human resource development and utilization of information technology.  Deputy Commissioner Tian introduced the according measures taken by SIPO.

In addition, the Conference also explored the possibility of establishing an ASEAN intellectual property week and discussed to length on how to conduct public education and how to effectively enforce IPRs. 

During this period, Deputy Commissioner Tian also visited IPOS and explored possible future cooperation between the two offices with IPOS Director General Ms. Liew Woon Yin.  The two sides expressed interest in bilateral visits, information exchange, jointly organizing seminars, and invention exhibitions.  A Record of Discussion was signed. 

2003-12-18

2003-12-18