Conference reflects increasing activity in field of IP protection

During the ongoing Belt and Road High-Level Conference on Intellectual Property, senior officials of intellectual property offices from various countries have given the thumbs-up to the Belt and Road Initiative and called for enhanced IP cooperation under the framework of the BRI.

"My government supports this initiative wholeheartedly, since it promotes the orderly and free flow of economic goods between our countries, the efficient and easy deployment of economic resources and the stronger connection between national markets," Vladimir Maric, director of the Intellectual Property Office of Serbia, told China Daily prior to the event. Maric moderated a panel dedicated to pollution control and the use of green technologies at the conference on Thursday. "Intellectual property also has its place in this great project as an important lever of economic progress in the modern world," he added.

As shown in the annual report of the World Intellectual Property Organization, China is the world leader by number of patents and trademark filings.

"Processing such a large number of applications in a high-quality manner is not possible without a good organizational framework, without an excellent national intellectual property office, without expert patent examiners, without large investments in human and technical capacities … Therefore, there is no doubt that all of us on the European continent can learn something from China, I firmly believe that," he said.

Maric and his colleagues have visited China on multiple occasions, and they have been able to familiarize themselves with China's IP protection system at its source. "These were valuable experiences that enriched us, both personally and professionally," he said.

Fruitful exchanges

In March, the China National Intellectual Property Administration sent a delegation to the Intellectual Property Office of Serbia, where the two parties had fruitful exchanges of knowledge and experiences regarding their IP work.

"Out of the many great ideas shared, we were particularly impressed by the future strategy of the CNIPA, which refers to the so-called 'dormant rights'," he said. "Once a right is protected, it must not remain a collection of papers collecting dust in a drawer, but must live on the market.

"China takes care to ensure this, and helps the rights holders find a way to market their inventions. This approach left a strong impression on us. China has the capacity to ensure the high level of support to innovators in this way, and we are certain that our own innovation infrastructure is also ready to provide such support as well."

Important partner

Serbia is a key partner for China in the development of the BRI and stands as the first European country to jointly construct a community with a shared future with China.

The two countries' governments signed a free trade agreement in October 2023, which came into effect in July. It is the first FTA between China and a Central and Eastern European country and the 22nd FTA signed by China.

The China-Serbia agreement is expected to give a further boost to bilateral trade.

"For several years, we have witnessed the increasing presence of Chinese companies in Serbia, coming from various fields of industry: from construction to well-known Chinese IT companies that employ Serbian IT experts," Maric said. "We also hope that our expertise in certain areas of industry as well as our products will have a greater share in the economic exchange with China.

"It is noticeable that a large number of Serbian companies has started to focus on China as one of their target markets."

All this implies increasing activity in the field of IP protection. Therefore, the cooperation between the countries' IP offices is becoming increasingly more important, he added.

Proactive efforts

Woldu Yemessel Baraki, director general of the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Authority, also stressed the importance of international cooperation.

The IP collaboration between China and Ethiopia can be traced back to more than a decade ago when the two countries' IP offices signed a memorandum of understanding in 2011.

The bilateral cooperation aims at promoting and enhancing IP protection, awareness creation and capacity building under the framework of the cooperation between the two countries in the fields of science, technology, innovation and socioeconomic growth at large, Baraki said.

That includes strengthening exchange and cooperation in patent examination, training of patent examiners, providing IP-related scholarship programs, and exchange and sharing of information, he added.

"This is in line with China's proactive efforts in developing cooperation in the field of IP with countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative, and Ethiopia is one of the beneficiaries of this initiative," he noted.

As Ethiopia has joined the BRICS grouping, of which China is a member, the entry will open the door for more strengthened and deepened IP cooperation under the BRICS framework, according to Baraki.

"EIPA has got full support in the areas of human resource development both at the leadership and staff level," he said.

Full support

Senior experts from the CNIPA provided practical training in patents and industrial designs to Ethiopian examiners. The training program was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, over a three-year period, starting from 2016, with each session lasting from 15 to 30 days.

"The training has contributed a lot in enhancing the capacity of patent examiners both in theory and practical examination," Baraki said, adding that EIPA staff members have got postgraduate IP law scholarships at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, which is situated in Central China's Hubei province.

He highly values the Belt and Road High-Level Conference on Intellectual Property.

"The thematic issues under discussion in this conference clearly underscore the need for strengthening cooperation further among the Belt and Road countries to properly utilize IP for the betterment of life across all communities," he said.

At the third edition of the conference, a batch of pragmatic cooperation programs in the realms of patents, trademarks, geographical indications and copyrights will be promoted, in a bid to help IP collaboration under the BRI framework expand and upgrade, Liang Xinxin, spokesman for the CNIPA, said at a news conference earlier this month.

During the conference, more than 20 bilateral cooperation conferences have been lined up and over 10 IP cooperation agreements are expected to be signed, according to Sheng Li, deputy head of the CNIPA's international cooperation department.

The cooperation between China and other Belt and Road countries has become increasingly stronger, especially in digital technology and green innovation, Liang noted.