Chinese enterprises were encouraged to make use of intellectual property rights (IPRs) mechanisms to protect their advanced technologies yesterday at a two-day workshop jointly organized by the State Intellectual Property Office and the European Union.
The call came from Wang Jingchuan, commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office, at the "WTO Accession and Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement-Strategies for Enterprises" workshop being held in Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan Province.
According to Wang, the country has reached the baseline standards of international rules regarding intellectual property protection performance.
The rules, including the Trade Related Intellectual Property system (TRIPs), will play a bigger role in helping China's enterprises and those in other countries stage "fair plays" in the globalized market, Wang said.
TRIPs is essentially a minimum standards agreement, setting out the basic standards for intellectual property regimes which World Trade Organization (WTO) members must implement.
The main objective of the TRIPs agreement is the reduction of distortions and impediments to international trade.
However, Wang said China still faces huge challenges in intellectual property protection and enforcement.
"First of all, most market players in developed countries have imbedded intellectual property protection into their developing strategies, but the awareness of Chinese enterprises needs to be further improved," the commissioner said.
Wang urged Chinese enterprises to prioritize intellectual property protection and enforcement when mapping out their development strategies.
Also yesterday at the workshop, representatives from the European Union (EU) welcomed China's membership in the WTO.
"By welcoming China as a new member of the WTO, we have expanded the WTO's membership by more than a quarter with an additional 1.2 billion people," said Paul Vandoren, senior official with the EU commission responsible for trade matters related to intellectual property.
"This decision is historic: It is one of the WTO's most significant steps forward for world -wide intellectual property protection."
In addition, the EU has encouraged administrative agencies, the judiciary and police forces and customs authorities to use all available means to reduce rampant piracy and counterfeiting in China.
The workshop is part of a China-EU intellectual property project with a budget well over US$3 million scheduled to finish this year.
China and the EU have decided however to extend the project for another two years, and more official exchanges, training and workshops are expected in the future.
(China Daily November 30, 2001)
