Recently, a Sino-US seminar on intellectual property protection was convened in Wenzhou, a city in south China's Zhejiang province.
The seminar was co-hosted by the State Intellectual Property Office, Zhejiang Provincial Intellectual Property Office and Wenzhou Municipal People’s government, co-sponsored by the Intellectual Property Research Society of Zhejiang province and American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), and organized by the Science and Technology Bureau of Wenzhou and Zhejiang Industry and Trade Vocational College.
A total of about 300 industry insiders of law, science & technology and economy from both China and the United Stated participated in the seminar, which makes it the largest ever IP workshop involving foreign peers held in Zhejiang province in latest years.
Yan Mingchao, Deputy Director of Zhejiang Provincial Intellectual Property Office, presided over the opening ceremony of the seminar.
Yan said that in 2011, the total GDP of Zhejiang province succeeded three trillion yuan ($471.3 billion) for the first time and local GDP per capita surpassed 9,000 US dollars, reflecting a successful and prosperous economy, whereas intellectual property protection is facing multi-faceted challenges, in which the prominent problem turns out to be the IP litigations filed against Chinese entities in the process of carrying out the “going-out” strategy. In addition, Zhejiang becomes one of the most frequently investigated areas by “337 Investigations” conducted by the United State. Therefore, it is of extreme importance to make enterprises in the province timely informed with dynamic IP development status and updated international IP regulations.
At the opening ceremony, Qiu Yangjun, Vice Mayor of Wenzhou, said that the city will take the opportunity of this seminar to unswervingly study and implement IP strategies and will use innovations to drive the transformation of local economic growth mode.
During the seminar, eight lecturers from both sides delivered speeches on commonly concerned issues including the latest progress of patent judicial protection in China and the updated status of the America Invents Act.
(Source: IPR in China)
