China

The China-EU Seminar on the Reform of PRC Anti-unfair Competition Law has been co-organized by IP Key and SAIC at the School of Administration of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province on June 10th, 2015 opening a series of technical training sessions for AIC officers organised by SAIC in the same week.

The seminar was addressed on the aspects as below:

  3rd Meeting of the IPR Working Group

Workshop on "Efficient Communication between Customs and Businesses on IPR Border Enforcement"

In the context of the EU-China Customs Cooperation Action Plan (2014-2017) on IPR Enforcement, IP Key is organising the “3rd IPR Working Group Meeting” and a workshop on "Efficient Communication between Customs and Businesses on IPR Border Enforcement”.

Counterfeiting and piracy, and infringements of intellectual property in general, are a constantly growing phenomenon which nowadays has an international dimension, a serious threat to national economies and governments that appears to be increasingly linked to organized crime. Counterfeiting is considered by large public opinion a “victim-less” crime, while its impact on legal economy and the role of transnational organized criminal organizations seems to be still largely underestimated.

Innovation fuels economic growth by creating new markets and increasing productivity. Empirical analysis suggests that an efficient and well-structured IP system accelerates innovation. The Office for the Harmonization of the Internal market (OHIM) and the European Patent Office (EPO) jointly published a study entitled “Intellectual property rights intensive industries: Contribution to economic performance and employment in the European Union”.

IP Key held a workshop on inventor remuneration rules at Renmin University Law School in Beijing on July 17th 2015. The purpose of this workshop is to provide an understanding of how government-mandated systems for inventor remuneration function in EU Member States and China, and to investigate the impacts of these systems. These insights and related research under IP Key are intended to assess the optimality of state-mandated inventor remuneration rules, with a view to proposing a system that minimises the most avoidable costs and risks therein to employers while encouraging innovation.

Following the training organised in Chengdu in 2014,  IP Key has been invited by Ministry of Culture (MoC) to contribute EU expertise to the 2015 MoC online enforcement training on 31 August in Zhengzhou, Henan Province.  Three experts engaged by IP Key spoke on 31 August to around 110 cultural market enforcement officers from 26 provinces and 17 cities to raise their awareness on the online copyright protection trends in the EU and internationally and more importantly to focus on good practices of case investigation and evidence collection.

A Geographical Indication (shortly, GI) is a name or sign used on certain products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin (e.g. a town, region, or country), where the use of a GI official logo certifies and ensure consumers that the product possesses certain qualities, is made according to certain (traditional) methods, or enjoys a certain reputation, that is attributable essentially to that geographical origin.

IP Key, the China IPR SME Helpdesk and the EU SME Centre will deliver a webinar on “Entering China’s Food & Beverage Market”. Together they will discuss the current landscape of the Chinese F&B market and the methods EU SMEs should take when considering entering the market.

IP Key conducted a training session to members of the press to inform them on new trends and challenges in developing and enforcing the copyright law in todays digital world where technology is often moving much faster than the law.

IP Key successfully completed a study visit to Europe for a delegation of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, led by the Deputy Director General of the Investigation Supervision Department and including prosecutors of Provincial Procuratorates.

The study visits took place in France (Paris), Spain (Alicante) and in Italy (Milan and Rome), between July 2 and 9, 2014

With the facilitation of IP Key, EU experts engaged the six Chinese delegates in technical exchanges concerning certain topics of interest for the future legislative reforms on Criminal IPR enforcement.