At the invitation of Alison Brimelow, President of European Patent Office (EPO), SIPO Commissioner Tian Lipu leads a delegation to EPO on December 2-6 and attends the Second Head Conference of EPO and SIPO in Munich.

At the meeting, Mr. Tian and Mrs. Brimelow brief on the latest developments of SIPO and EPO respectively and discuss the implementation of the agreement of strategic partnership between the two offices. Both parties also have in-depth exchanges on the important development of the international IP system such as the cooperation among the United States, Japan and Europe and IP5 cooperation.

Mr. Tian points out that the Agreement of Strategic Partnership signed last year is a new milestone in the cooperation of the two offices, indicating that the relationship between the two offices has shifted from technological cooperation to strategic cooperation of mutual benefit. Chinese side attaches great importance to the friendly relations between SIPO and EPO and would like to make contribution to further deepen the bilateral cooperation. Mr. Tian also expresses his appreciation to EPO's long-term constructive roles in promoting the development and improvement of China's IP system through bilateral cooperation and EU-China IP cooperation projects.

This is the Second Head Conference of EPO and SIPO under the framework of the Agreement of Strategic Partnership signed by SIPO and EPO on June 29 last year. At the meeting, both sides sign the Agreed Minutes of the Second Head Conference and the Work Programme for the Year 2009. Gan Shaoning, Director of the SIPO General Affairs Office and other related people attend the meeting.

EPO is one of the most important cooperation partners of SIPO, and the friendly cooperation between the two offices can be traced back to early 1980s. After signing the formal cooperation agreement on June 11, 1985 in Munich, Germany, the two offices have launched multi-layer and all-dimension friendly cooperation in many areas such as personnel training, examination management, automation, data exchange and document and information services, making fruitful achievements.

During his stay in Europe, Mr. Tian also meets with Dr. Jurgen Schade, President of German Patent and Trade Mark Office, exchanging views on of bilateral cooperation and the latest progress in personnel training and examination management.

2008-12-22