On September 21 (local time), the 12th Leader's Meeting of China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) and the European Patent Office (EPO) was held in Munich. Shen Changyu, Commissioner of China National Intellectual Property Administration, and António Campinos, director general of EPO attended the meeting. 

First of all, Shen Changyu congratulated Campinos on his accession to the post of the director general of EPO, and he wished that both sides would make joint efforts to further widen the cooperation between the two institutions. At the meeting, Shen introduced to the European side the latest progress and relevant information on the institutional reform of the intellectual property in China and recalled the relevant progress of all collaborative projects in 2018 launched by the two institutions. He said that the bilateral collaborative projects of the two sides went smoothly and all business lines were operated in an orderly, practical and high-efficient way based on the work plan this year, having achieved anticipated results. He reiterated that the cooperation between CNIPA and EPO over the last 33 years secured rich achievements and made positive contributions to the development of the intellectual property system of both sides and even the whole world. In 2017, the two institutions upgraded the strategic partnership to an overall strategic partnership, opening a new path of cooperation. CNIPA wishes to promote the innovation and progress of the global patent system in joint efforts with EPO to provide better services for intellectual property right users and the public and push forward the economic development in China and Europe together.

Campinos said that the numbers of patent application and authorization with EPO by Chinese applicants have been rising in recent years, which reflected the enormous vitality in innovation in China and remarkable achievements by the cooperation between the two sides. At the meeting, Campinos reviewed the cooperation between the two institutions in data exchange, training of personnel and invention under the framework of five institutions and expressed his appreciation for the high quality implementation of all bilateral collaborative projects in a smooth way by CNIPA even in its course of institutional reform.  He wished the two sides will conduct a higher level cooperation in a wider range and in a much deeper way to cope with the new challenges faced by the intellectual property system together and promote the exchange and cooperation in such fields as economy, innovation and science and technology between China and Europe in a more effective way. 

At the meeting, both sides signed the 2019 Work Plan of China National Intellectual Property Administration and the European Patent Office in Bilateral Cooperation, conducted extensive and profound discussion around the topics of unified patent classification, automated search and review system, cooperation of five institutions (China, the US, Europe, Japan and S.Korea) and the 13th Leader's Meeting for the year of 2019 and reached important consensuses. (Translated from CNIPA Website Chinese Version)