From November 28 to 29 (local time), CNIPA Commissioner Shen Changyu led a delegation to Portugal for a working visit. He had a meeting respectively with Ms. Anabela Pedroso, State Secretary of Justice, and Ms. Ana Margarida Bandeira, President of INPI of Portugal and they reached important consensus on deepening IP exchanges and cooperation between China and Portugal.

At the meeting with Ministry of Justice, Shen Changyu said that Chinese government has always attached great importance to IP work and made a series of new and important deployment on the top-level design. China has achieved remarkable results in IP development and continuously improved IP protection level. This year marks the 40th anniversary of China-Portugal ties. In this context, China is willing to further deepen exchanges and cooperation with Portugal in various IP-related fields, so as to continue to push for new achievements in China-Portugal friendly cooperation in IP, better serve the public and IP users and promote social and economic development of the two countries. Ms. Pedroso expressed her congratulations to China on its rapid development and remarkable achievements in IP and said that Portugal attaches great importance to continuing deepening IP cooperation with China, especially the service for SMEs. She hoped that the two sides could regularly hold relevant activities and keep strengthening information exchange and personnel visits to share their best practices and successful experience in IP work. The two sides also exchanged views on beneficial cooperation under the platform of WIPO.

At the meeting with INPI, the two sides discussed their cooperation in a wide range of fields such as IP experience sharing, personnel exchange, information construction and public service and signed a MoU on cooperation. Shen Changyu introduced the latest development of China's IP cause and reviewed the cooperation history and achievements in IP together with INPI. Shen Changyu said that CNIPA and INPI have long maintained active, friendly and practical exchanges and cooperation and have achieved pragmatic results. With the progress in "Belt and Road" cooperation, economic and trade exchanges between the two countries have seen rapid development. CNIPA is willing to, starting from the MoU on bilateral cooperation, work with INPI to carry out exchanges and cooperation in more fields such as trademarks, patents and geographical indications, and open a new chapter of cooperation between the two offices. Ms. Bandeira fully agreed with Shen's initiative. She said that the two offices are friendly partners of each other and hoped to further deepen their cooperation, especially exchanges in public awareness enhancement, expert visits and IP service for SMEs, and continue to promote their PPH cooperation.

Accompanied by relevant personnel of INPI, Shen Changyu also visited local relevant management agencies of geographical indications. He listened to their introduction of related work and learnt about Portugal's legal system and protection of geographical indications and the authentication procedure of geographical indication products. He also exchanged ideas with them on geographical indication protection.

During his visit to Portugal, Shen Changyu also made an official visit to Cai Run, ambassador of China to Portugal, and had in-depth exchange with him on the latest progress in China's IP cause, the IP cooperation between China and Portugal and IP protection work for China-invested enterprises in Portugal and exchanged views on related issues.  (Translated from CNIPA Website Chinese Version)