On November 21, Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Chao proclaimed at the press release of the 22nd China-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade ("JCCT") that China determined to make IP protection leadership mechanism permanent.
Wang said, China proclaimed to make the leadership mechanism on IP protection a long term one and continue to reinforce IP protection through judicial and administrative means.
Besides, China will continue to promote the use of legal software and invest more in the software legalization in governmental departments. China will also supervise and investigate relevant work of the governmental sections at all levels and release the progress at an appropriate time. China will also promote enterprises to use legal software on their computers.
As for online sales, China and the United States agreed to launch cooperation projects in 2012 and discuss relevant issues concerning the ways to combat the sales of infringing products via Internet. In 2012, the two parties will also exchange views on online copyright protection. The Vice Minister also released that China will improve relevant laws and regulations and reform supervision mechanism to exploit a long term mechanism to purify the sales market on the Internet.
The meeting of the 22nd China-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade will be conducted in Chengdu City, the capital of Sichuan Province. Vice Premiere of the State Council of China Wang Qishan will host the meeting together with the Secretary of Commerce of the United States John Bryson and US Trade Representative Ron Kirk.
At the conference, the Ministry of Commerce of China and its American counterpart also signed the United States-China Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Cooperation Framework Agreement. The two parties expressed to deepen the cooperation in IPR field and actively carry out the Agreement. China and the United States also agreed to exchange ideas on patent examination period and quality, trademark registration and protection and online copyright protection.
The participants from the USA confirmed the measures China would take and Bryson said at the press release that for the first time China agreed to make the leadership mechanism on IP protection a long term one, which the United States valued much.
“China approved to continue to exploit ways to curb the sales of infringing commodities via Internet…these promises will help China enhance the protection of American innovative products and promote job creation in the United States.” Kirk said at the same occasion.
Since last October to this June, China launched a special campaign to combat IPR violation and the manufacture and distribution of shoddy commodities. As a result, a group of serious cases were handled. Nowadays, China has set up a leading group consisting of 26 departments to coordinate IPR protection work across the nation.
The International Trade Negotiation Vice Representative of the Ministry of Commerce of China Chong Quan expressed when taking part in China IPR International Cooperation Forum and Sino-US IPR Government and Enterprises Round Table Meeting that the improvement of IPR protection work in China has greatly enhance foreign investors’ confidence. At present, China is one of the countries that attract most foreign investment and over 470 of the first 500 businesses in the world have invested in China. The R&D centers built by multinational companies in this country have exceeded 1,200.
