Invited by European Patent Office (EPO), SIPO Information Delegation headed by Mr. Yang Tiejun, Deputy Commissioner of SIPO paid a visit to EPO to carry out the information part of the Strategic Partnership Agreement as well as Cooperation Memory in 2007 between the two organizations, and to well get to know the latest development of EPO in information field. In addition to these, Mr. Yang also had profound exchanges with his counterpart in other issues in information field.

 

EPO is an old, important and friendly cooperation partner of SIPO, and the two bodies have cooperated quite well in various fields of IP, while in information field, the cooperation is even more fruitful. On this July 29, the two offices signed the Strategic Partnership Agreement, symbolizing the relation had been upgraded from technical cooperation to the strategic, and the two parties will further their cooperation in the century and work together to deal with any new problems and challenges. Cooperation in information, of course, is part of the overall relation. Therefore, EPO gave a high attention the trip, and arranged visits for its Chinese guests to EPO Hague Branch, Information Center in Vienna, and the Headquarter in Zurich for the delegations. The SIPO delegation had thorough talks with senior officials in the above three institutions on many important issues such as data exchange, machinery translation and upgrading EPOQUE system, and reached wide consensuses.

 

During the visit, SIPO provided EPO with the whole copy of China patent code data from 1996 to 2006, and signed data exchange agreement. Regarding cooperation on EPOQUE, the delegation listened to upgrading situation of EPO, and discussed about the upgrading of SIPO's system. In addition to these, the two parties exchanged their views on cooperation about the Vienna China Patent Information Service and classification, search and translation service. They all agreed the consensus will be listed into the two parties' cooperation memory in the next year.

 

Mr. Yang's trip furthered the traditional friendship and cooperation in information field between the two offices, and laid a good foundation for the joint committee to be held in Shanghai.

2007-11-12

2007-11-12