8-9 April 2010, Beijing

The 6^th EU-China IP Dialogue took place in Beijing over two days, co-chaired by Ms Ewa Synowiec, Director, DG Trade in the European Commission and Ms. Li Ling, Director-General, Department of Treaty and Law of the Ministry of Commerce of P.R. China. The Dialogue continues the EU and China’s relationship on IP-related issues giving both sides the opportunity to exchange their views on developments with Europe and China’s respective IPR policy, update on progress made and consider the way forward on key action areas such as trademarks, copyrights, patents, geographical indications, innovation and standardisation, plant variety protection and indigenous-innovation products. 

This year's Dialogue addressed a number of key IPR issues including:

• Trademarks including the new draft Trademark Law and measures to deal with ‘bad faith ‘trademark applications.
• Design protection
• IPR protection at trade fairs
• Copyright, including broadcasting of copyrighted works, plant manufacturing of pirated optical discs and online music content examination;
• Geographical Indications (GI), including establishing a GI information sharing platform  
• Patents, including the revised Patent Law and related regulations, patents in relation to low-carbon energy as well as licensing agreements in the ICT sector.
• Innovation and standardisation, including data protection for pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, IT security certification and IPR and standardisation.
• Plant variety protection, including research towards China’s potential accession to UPOV.
• IPR-related aspects of indigenous innovation products.

In the context of IPR enforcement, both sides discussed counterfeiting in retail and wholesale markets and on the internet, online piracy; civil and administrative measures and procedures; customs action; criminal prosecution and practice of IPR infringement lawsuits. 

Both sides reiterated the importance of the IPR2 Project as a key tool of bilateral co-operation. 

IPR2 supported the preparation of this dialogue with documentation and will ensure that up and coming Project activities are in line with its Joint Conclusions (coming soon). It was agreed that the next session of the EU-China IP Dialogue will take place in Beijing in April 2011.

The IP Dialogue is reinforced by regular IP Working Group meetings which brings together officials from a range of agencies and ministries in the area of IP protection, EU experts and representatives of European industry. The next EU-China IP Working Group will take place in June 2010. 

The first EU-China IPR Dialogue started in 2004 and enables both sides to exchange information on multilateral and bilateral IPR-related issues, on national IP legislation and practices, and to identify shortcomings and proposals for improvement. 

View Joint Conclusions 2010.

Useful links

European Commission’s DG Trade IPR in China

Ministry of Commerce’s IP Protection in China

For more information on IPR2’s support to the EU-China Dialogues, contact Mr Carlo Pandolfi This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

For general information on IPR2, contact Ms Tamryn Barker This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

[IPR2 ref. CC3.AW2.001]