24 June 2010, Beijing

The 6^th meeting of the EU-China IP Working Group was held in support of the EU-China IP Dialogue and focused on patent-related issues and developments. The EU-China IP Dialogue, a structured political exchange between the European Union and China on IP, is reinforced by regular IP Working Group meetings, which enables industry and other right holders to participate in bilateral IP discussions.  View IP Working Group Joint Conclusions 2010.

The meeting addressed the latest trends and procedures for patent applications and grants in China and Europe as well as patent-related lawsuits in both regions. The Chinese side introduced the latest developments on patent legislative protection and the EU side introduced the changes to the patent granting procedure, improvements in patent searches and examination procedures, and measures taken under the revised Implementing Regulations to the European Patent Convention (EPC).

The exchange also covered patentability requirements and related procedures (conditions for granting patents under the EPC and China’s revised Patent Law, including limitations to patentability, confidentiality examination and related procedures and disclosure requirements for inventions based on genetic resources. Moreover, China’s new rules on double patenting for utility models and invention patents with regard to the PCT application procedure were addressed as well as the EU’s the rules on double patenting.

Other points of discussion included the transfer and licensing of inventions, transfer of patent applications and patents; rights conferred by a patent and term of protection; design patent applications; opposition and invalidation procedures; compulsory licensing under China’s revised Patent Law including in cases of abuse of patents and regarding the treatment of patents. Patent protection was looked at in specific sectors including the Information and Communication Technologies and pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors and rules related to service inventions.

Also covered was the administrative enforcement of patents, injunctions and evidence preservation, including legalisation and notarisation, damages and exceptions to patent enforcement under China’s revised Patent Law and the rules on exceptions in the EU patent system.

The EU-China IP Dialogue and Working Group was created in July 2004, endorsed at the EU-China Summit in 2005 and held its first meeting on 18 October 2005 in Beijing. The 6th Working Group meeting took place in Beijing on 16 September 2009, focusing on trademarks and geographical indications and agreed on a list of follow-up initiatives. View IP Working Group Joint Conclusions 2009.

As part of its implementation, IPR2 supports the preparation of EU-China IP Dialogue and Working Group meetings: Most recently the 6^th EU-China IP Dialogue 2010, which took place from 8-9 April 2010 in Beijing, co-chaired by the European Commission and the Ministry of Commerce of P.R. China. This Dialogue continued 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. It was agreed that the next session of the EU-China IP Dialogue will take place in Beijing in April 2011. View IP Dialogue Joint Conclusions 2010.

Useful links

European Commission’s DG Trade IPR 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.AW3.001]