Recently, Tian Lipu, Director of the State Intellectual Property Office met Eric Smith, Chairman of the U.S. Federation on Intellectual Property and his party in Beijing.  Both sides conducted in-depth discussion on strengthening intellectual property protection, amendment to and improvement of China's Patent Law, future exchange and cooperation and other issues of mutual concern.  Tian pointed out that the intellectual property system has been developed in an unprecedented way and that China has entered the best period for the development of intellectual property.

 

Tian Lipu expressed his welcome to Eric Smith and his party and gave a specific account to the visiting guests on the historical process of the development of China's intellectual property system and the current situation of intellectual property protection. Tian said that "Twenty years ago, China had not yet established the specific legal system for the protection of intangible property.  But today, the intellectual property system has been developed in an unprecedented way in China.  And high importance has been attached to it from the Central Government to the local governments as well as from the legislation of intellectual property to law enforcement of intellectual property.  In recent years, patent applications from the U.S. enterprises in China have been growing rapidly.  Last year, the said applications reached 20,000, an increase of more than 20 percent.  From January to October this year, patent applications from the U.S. enterprises reached 19,000.  This lively phenomenon indicates that the U.S. enterprises are fully confident about China's protection for intellectual property.  Tian said that China's patent system is identical to the international rules and its standard for patent examination has also reached the international standard. Besides, the speed and quality of patent examination in China are also required to be the same as that of international standard.  He pointed out that China is now confronted with the challenge of raising the intellectual property consciousness of the social public.

 

Eric Smith expressed his admiration for the achievements China has made in the intellectual property area.  He believes that China's progress in intellectual property legal construction is obvious to all.  At the same time, he hopes that China and the U.S. will strengthen their communication and cooperation in cracking down pirated editions and in the law enforcement of intellectual property.

 

It was learnt that the U.S. International Federation on Intellectual Property is a non-governmental organization which was founded in 1984.  The Federation represents the U.S. copyright industries and its goal is to strengthen protection of its copyright industry within a global scale.

2006-11-16

2006-11-16