On November13, the 11th Mixed Working Committee Meeting was convened by the SIPO and the U.K. Patent Bureau in Beijing. The 2007 Intellectual Property Bilateral Cooperation Execution Plan was signed by Tian Lipu, Commissioner of SIPO and Ron Marchat, Director of the U.K. Patent Bureau. Tian said that "The Chinese bureau and the U.K. bureau have maintained good cooperation in examining business, quality control and the operation and protection of intellectual property and also have maintained high-level dialogue.  The present meeting will further promote the existing good relations."

In the meeting, both sides gave an account on the recent development of intellectual property, discussed issues of mutual concern and have reached consensus on the implementation of the 2007 Cooperation Plan.  Both sides also conducted in-depth exchange, in particular, on educating the youngsters on the knowledge of intellectual property, making use of multi-forms and strengthening the intellectual property law enforcement capability.

Tian gave an presentation on the recent formulation of the state intellectual property strategy as well as the latest development of the 3rd amendment to the Patent Law. He also said that the rapid development of China's intellectual property will provide an extensive space for the exchange and cooperation of intellectual property between China and Britain.  From January to September this year, the number of patent application has reached 400,000 and it is estimated that the total number of applications will exceed 520,000, of which, 2,606 were accepted PCT applications, exceeding the total PCT number of applications of last year.  Ron Mrchnat gave an account on the recent development and activities carried out by the U.K. Patent Bureau, which included: enhancing training of the public in intellectual property consciousness, providing patent data analysis and other counseling services for the small and medium-sized enterprises and the government departments, making use of intellectual property evaluation system and standardizing the patent permit agreement as well as further deepening of the system of paperless office.  Tian highly commended the U.K. Patent Bureau for providing innovative services and said this will add new content to the cooperation between the Chinese bureau and the U.K. bureau in the future.

2006-11-21

2006-11-21