China

Between October 25 and 28, 2016 IP Key had the pleasure to cooperate with the Supreme People’s Procuratorate in a set of peer to peer exchanges for European and Chinese criminal prosecutors.

The meetings were courteously hosted by the Shanghai and Guangzhou Public Prosecutor Offices, who provided the venue and hospitality to develop two days of extensive discussions on issues of common interest for Chinese and European prosecutors in the fight of IP crimes.

The European Union Delegation to China, Treaty & Law Department of the Ministry of Commerce of China (MOFCOM), Xiamen University, and IP Key organised an “EU-China Innovation Policies” roundtable on December 9th 2016 at Xiamen University in Xiamen, China. The roundtable enabled a select group of policymakers and academics from China and the EU to share experiences about how to craft optimal IP-related innovation policies and laws. Specific areas of policy and law were selected based upon past IP Key activities, including:

IP Key, the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO), and the local IP offices of Beijing, Chongqing, and Guangdong will be holding a roving seminar series on the registered community design (RCD) and European Patent systems. A full-day seminar will be held in Beijing (on November 4th 2016), Chongqing (November 7th 2016), and Zhongshan, Guangdong (November 9th 2016).

Following a two-day expert roundtable in June 23-24, 2016 in Beijing (see relevant activity description), between October 11 and 18, 2016 IP Key and the Chinese State Administration for Industry & Commerce (in short, SAIC) carried out - for the second time since the start of the Action - a series of “roving seminars” to explain to the European audience the reforms adopted in 2014 by the State Council to the Chinese Trademark Law.

To further strengthen the foundations of EU-China IP dialogue platforms and mechanism, IP Key collaborate with Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) to facilitate exchanges between Chinese government and the EU.  One Chinese official delegation led by MOFCOM visited Europe from 7 -16 November 2016. The Chinese delegation is comprised of officials from 9 ministries, judges from provincial high court and Beijing IP Court, procurator from the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) as well as academic representatives.

In the margins of the EU-China IP Forum, IP Key will be organised a follow up workshop to further develop EU-China academia cooperation in the field of intellectual property.  

This workshop aimed to develop some of the components of the EU-China IP Research and Network agreed during the feasibility study workshop held in June 2016.

In particular the EU-China Research and Networking program and the EU-China IP Research and Network Portal.

IP Key, in cooperation with the Queen Mary University of London, organised the second EU-China IP Forum.

IP Key and Chinese experts selected by China’s Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and China’s State Forestry Administration (SFA) (the “study team”) held a series of roundtables from July 4^th-7^th 2016 in Europe (Angers and Brussels) as part of an ongoing feasibility study on China’s potential accession to UPOV ’91. The Chinese study team met with European stakeholders to discuss the impacts of UPOV ’91 accession in the EU, and issues related to China’s potential accession to UPOV ’91.

With the new draft Chinese Anti-Unfair Competition Law recently passed to the Legislative Affairs Commission of the National People’s Congress (LAC) for final revision and enactment, the European Commission and the State Administration for Industry & Commerce of China partnered in a two-day seminar and expert roundtable in Nanning, Guangxi, with the technical support of IP Key.

On June 23 and 24 the European Commission and the State Administration for Industry & Commerce partnered in a two-day expert roundtable that  featured Chinese and EU experts’ discussions on major issues in the protection of trademark and Geographical Indications. The event was hosted at SAIC premises in Beijing and focused – in particular - on the challenges encountered by examiners in adjudicating oppositions and invalidations of trademarks filed in “bad-faith”.