Recently, the 2010 National Seminar on Intellectual Property Protection of Foreign-invested Enterprises was held in Chongqing City of Sichuan Province. Representatives from the administrative agencies for IP in China and senior counsels of Fortune 500 enterprises met and discussed the issues of IP protection. SIPO senior official made the point that it is an internal need to strengthen the IP protection in order to comply with the economic development in China. The common goal is to establish a mechanism for regular communications, enhance the exchange of information and create a harmonized environment for intellectual property.
28 Representatives from Ministry of Commerce, General Administration for Customs, State Administration for Industry and Commerce, National Copyright Administration of China, Supreme People’s Court, etc introduced to the participants the progress made so far by each respective agency. Representatives from the foreign-invested enterprises appreciated the determination and efforts made by Chinese government to protect the intellectual property rights and provided comments and suggestions on the improvement of legislation, transparency of government work, transparency of administrative enforcement, enhancement of criminal protection for IP as well as settlement of IP infringement over the internet.
It is learnt that China has become one of the world’s most popular destination for foreign investment. At present, more than 470 of the world’s top 500 enterprises have their business presence in China. More than 1,200 research centers were set up.. In the first half of 2010, the number of foreign patent applications in China grew by 9.8 percent.
