The 24th meeting of the EU-China IP Working Group was held during the week of 31 May 2021 in Beijing and online. Established in 2005 at the EU-China Summit, the group was set up to support the EU-China IP Dialogue. This year’s session was co-chaired by DG Trade (European Commission) and MOFCOM, and supported by IP Key China. Industry participants and representatives of the European Union’s small and medium-sized enterprises had a chance to raise awareness about the issues they face.

Every business starts with an idea. That idea is an essential intellectual property asset that can drive business development, economic prosperity and human progress. While the opportunities are enormous, each business, regardless of its size, is focused on a core product or service that differentiates itself from other enterprises and competitors. Protecting an idea is protecting a business and the role that intellectual property rights’ (IPR) ownership plays cannot be underestimated in securing the future of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The National Directorate of Industrial Property under the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining of Uruguay (DNPI) has published a Practice Paper concerning the graphic representation of industrial designs.

The DNPI is the first Latin American IP office to analyse and find common ground with the criteria developed under the Common Communication on the Common Practice – Graphic Representation of Designs (CP6), referred to as ‘diseños’ (designs) in Uruguayan terminology.

To successfully protect IP in target markets, SMEs should be prepared to enforce their rights. Ultimately, only enforcement of IP rights can halt the infringements. Furthermore, in some countries such as China, if an SME builds a reputation for being litigious then malicious companies might be less likely to infringe their rights in the future. As IP is territorial, only rights that are registered in target markets can be enforced there.