The 10^th China Intellectual Property Annual Conference

On September 2, the 10th China Intellectual Property Annual Conference (CIPAC) with the theme of “IP, Evolving with the New Era” opened in Hangzhou. CNIPA Commissioner Shen Changyu and leaders of the People's Government of Zhejiang Province attended and made speeches at the opening ceremony. Director General of WIPO Francis Gurry sent a video message.

Shen Changyu pointed out that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Looking back on the 70-year extraordinary course, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, China's IP undertaking started from scratch, but is now progressing rapidly to yield a historic leap. As a country strong on IP now, China has not only caught up with and conformed to the trend of the times, but has also strongly underpinned the development of the times. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, under the strong leadership of the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, China's IP industry is on a "fast track" of development and has witnessed significant growth and strides. At present, the number of China’s annual patent and trademark applications rank first in the world and the number of patent applications filed through the Patent Cooperation Treaty and the number of trademark applications submitted through the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks have ranked second and third in the world respectively. IPs are increasingly bringing high-quality results, maintaining the momentum, exerting scale effects and upgrading China's international status, opening a new era to build China into a world leader in IP.

Shen Changyu introduced the relevant measures for China's IP work in the new era from the domestic and international dimensions. On the one hand, domestically, China will continue to unswervingly enhance strict IP protection systems to provide a sound environment for business and innovation. At the macro-policy level, General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over the ninth meeting of the Central Committee for Deepening Overall Reform on July 24, which has deliberated and adopted the Opinions on Strengthening Intellectual Property Protection , clarifying the direction and providing fundamental rules and an action guide for strengthening IP protection in the new era. At the strategy-planning level, a strategy compendium of building China into a country strong on IP in 2035 was formulated, continuously promoting the construction of a powerful IP country and IP strategies in a solid way. At the legal system level, the newly enacted Foreign Investment Law and the newly revised Trademark Law were conscientiously implemented, and a more stringent punitive damages mechanism for trademark infringement was put into effect. Meanwhile, a punitive damages mechanism for infringements and a drug patent protection compensation system aiming to lengthen the design patent protection term were also established to promote the revision of the Patent Law. At the operation examination level, we continue to enhance the quality and the efficiency of IP examination, thus to improve the timeliness of patent and trademark authorization and the stability of IPR.

On the other hand, internationally, China will continue to strengthen the international cooperation on IP protection and accelerate the construction of a new pattern for global IP cooperation featuring "multilateral, surrounding, small multilateral and bilateral linkage as well as coordinated growth". In terms of multilateralism, China is actively promoting cooperation with WIPO, enhancing the popularization and application of the Patent Cooperation Treaty and the Madrid System for International Trademark Registration in China as well as the IP cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, and jointly building the Technology and Innovation Support Center (TISC) in a bid to build a nationwide intellectual property information service network. Focusing on the surrounding cooperation, we will promote IP cooperation between China, Mongolia and Russia in the north, cooperation between China, Japan and South Korea in the east, cooperation between China and the Central Asian countries in the west, and the China-ASEAN IP cooperation in the south. With regard to small multilateral cooperation, we will promote IP cooperation between China, the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea, cooperation among the BRICS countries, as well as China-Africa IP cooperation. Focusing on bilateral cooperation, bilateral seminars on IP between China and France, China and Europe, China and Japan as well as China and South Korea will be held to promote all-round international IP cooperation.

Zhu Congjiu, vice governor of Zhejiang province, said that in recent years, the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee and the provincial people’s government have made major decisions and arrangements such as accelerating the construction of a strong IP province and building an ecologically optimal province for IP, embarking on a coordinated development path which includes the creation, protection and application of patent, trademark, copyright and other types of IP. The systems of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and assistance are increasingly perfected and more achievements have been made in IP management. Zhu said that taking this annual meeting as an opportunity, the "once at most" reform will fully unleash the reform of the IP system on digital economy, high-end equipment manufacturing, life and healthcare, modern service industry and special advantageous industries. The “14th Five-Year Plan” for building a strong IP province will be formulated with a high aim, so as to further promote the innovation and creation, effective protection, application and transformation of IP, and strive to provide Zhejiang wisdom and Zhejiang experience to the whole country.

In the video speech, Gurry said that China has made outstanding innovation achievements. In the Global Innovation Index 2019, China's global ranking has surged to the 14th, 3 places higher than the previous 17th, and keeps a steadily growing momentum, which have attracted worldwide attention. Over the past 40 years, China has attained excellence in building a first-class IP system, which is demonstrated by the continuously growing number of international patents, trademarks and design applications, highlighting China's leading position in the world’s IP industry.

Yoshiyuki Takagi, Assistant Director-General of WIPO, Pam Cong Tac, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology of Vietnam, Daren Tang, Director of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), and Phork Sovanrith, State Secretary of the Ministry of Industry and Handicrafts of Cambodia, attended the annual meeting and delivered keynote speeches on related issues such as digital transformation and IP and IP in the new era respectively. CNIPA Deputy Commissioner Gan Shaoning, He Zhimin and Zhao Gang also attended the meeting.

This is the first time that the China Patent Information Annual Conference and the China Patent Annual Conference have been upgraded to the China Intellectual Property Annual Meeting, covering various IP such as patents, trademarks, geographical indications, as well as operations, services, rights protection, legislation, judicature and other aspects. Focusing on the theme, the annual meeting held a series of activities such as the opening ceremony, keynote speeches, 15 sub-forums, roundtable discussions, and press conferences. The participants have launched in-depth discussions concerning the ecological chain of IP operation under the economic globalization, trademark management strategies and brand value realization, international trade and overseas IP protection, commercialization of geographical indications in global trade, institutional interpretation and experience sharing of IP administrative systems. In the same period, we will also hold patent information services and products exhibitions, trademark exhibitions and the China Geographical Indication Exhibition with the theme of “Great and Abundant, Innovative and Different”.

Representatives from international and regional organizations such as the WIPO, the ASEAN Secretariat, the IP authorities from ASEAN countries, relevant departments of the Chinese government, IP service agencies from home and abroad, universities, research institutes, and enterprises will explore new ideas and new measures for the IP development in the new era.  (Translated from CNIPA Website Chinese Version)