The meeting between senior officials of State Intellectual Property Office of China and the UK held on 2nd March. Mr. He Hua, head of China's State Intellectual Property Office, and Mr. John Alty, the UK counterpart attended the meeting.

Mr. He and Mr. Alty talked about the latest development of their own offices, and made a recap on last stage's work under the items of the framework of bilateral cooperative action plan. The two sides also have in-depth exchange on international IPR regime and other issues in common interests.

Mr. He thought highly of the friendly cooperation between the two offices. He said, SIPO attaches great importance to cooperation with the UKIPO. The framework covers a wide range of fields, including personnel training, examiner exchanges, research on search result comparison and joint development of IPR in R&D. In the future, the cooperation will be further expanded.

Mr. He also introduced to Mr. Alty the most recent development of patent applications in China. He said, the patent application and approval enjoyed a rapid growth in 2010. Application for invention patent reached 391,000, up by 24.1% year on year. PCT applications stood at 12,337, up by 56.2% year on year. Besides, Mr. He also briefed Mr. Alty on the 12th Five Year Plan of SIPO and the recent crackdown action on IPR violation and counterfeiting, directed by the State Council.

Mr. Alty believed, with the increasingly important role of IPR in global economy, UK Intellectual Property Office will attach more importance to its cooperation with its Chinese counterpart, and will prioritize this cooperation on its agenda. He expressed his hope to carry on and strengthen this friendly relation.

Mr. Alty thought highly of the progress in China's IPR cause. He said, both China and the UK are faced with the same issue - the rapid growth in patent application. At the same time, both sides also share a lot of common ground on how to better serve enterprises and the public. He sincerely hopes that the two Offices will further their communication and exchanges in these fields.

2011-04-14

2011-04-14