Recently, at the invitation of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan and its Department of Intellectual Property Rights, SIPO Commissioner Shen Changyu led a delegation to visit Kazakhstan, and signed the first China-Kazakhstan memorandum of understanding on cooperation in intellectual property with the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan after their negotiation, thus establishing the bilateral cooperative relations.

The delegation held talks with the Kazakhstan Minister of Justice Marat Bakytzhanovich Beketayev during the visit. Shen Changyu said that China-Kazakhstan relations are currently in the best shape in history. The Silk Road Economic Belt proposed by China and Kazakhstan’s New Economic Policy – The Path to the Future (Nurly Zhol) highly fit into each other. With the two countries’ deepening cooperation in various areas, the supportive and safeguarding role played by intellectual property is growingly prominent, which generates wider cooperation needs. China expects to conduct pragmatic cooperation on intellectual property and create a sound intellectual property environment for enterprises and investors of both countries. Marat Bakytzhanovich said that China and Kazakhstan are good neighbors and good friends, sharing a wide range of common concerns and cooperation needs. In recent years, the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Kazakhstan is showing the momentum of rapid development; cooperation over a number of matters is progressing smoothly. Kazakhstan firmly supports the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China and would like to be deeply engaged. He hoped that intellectual property cooperation between the two countries achieve fruitful results at an early date.

The delegation also visited the Department of Intellectual Property Rights under the Ministry of Justice and met with Elvira Abilkasymovna Azimova, Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic Kazakhstan, and Yerbol Ospanov, Director of the Department on Intellectual Property Rights. Shen Changyu said that as the biggest economy in Central Asia, Kazakhstan is an important partner for jointly building the Silk Road Economic Belt. Currently, with the further deepening of the two countries’ comprehensive strategic partnership, their cooperation in fields such as politics, economy, science and technology has developed comprehensively. Kazakhstan is a pivotal power in Eurasia’s intellectual property affairs. China would like to establish and develop close bilateral cooperative relations with Kazakhstan. The signing of the first memorandum of understanding on cooperation this time marks a milestone in China-Kazakhstan intellectual property cooperation and will provide guidance for their future cooperation. Azimova said that with the continuous deepening of China-Kazakhstan relations and their cooperation in various areas having made considerable headway, the importance of intellectual property cannot be overlooked. The signing of the memorandum of understanding on cooperation and the formalization of the two sides’ cooperation will help better serve intellectual property users of the two countries and facilitate their innovative development.

Also at the meeting, the two sides exchanged information on their own progress on intellectual property work, intellectual property related data, among others, and exchanged their views and opinions on issues such as patent search, personnel training, and the sharing of patent examination results. After the meeting, the two sides signed the memorandum of understanding on cooperation and thus established official cooperative relations on intellectual property.

During the stay in Kazakhstan, Shen Changyu also led the delegation to visit the Kazakhstan National Science Foundation. The two sides had an exchange and discussion on issues such as the conversion, application and commercialization of intellectual property. (Translated from SIPO Website Chinese Version)