Site of home event of National IP Publicity Week 2019

On April 24, the home event of National IP Publicity Week 2019 was held in Beijing. The theme of the Publicity Week this year is “Strengthen Intellectual Property Protection and Foster Favorable Business Environment”. State Councilor Wang Yong attended and gave an important speech.

Francis Gurry, WIPO Director General, and Zhang Mao, Director of State Administration for Market Regulation, attended the event. Leaders from Publicity Department of CCCPC, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Commerce, National Health Commission, State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, General Administration of Customs, National Forestry and Grassland Administration, China Association for Science and Technology, National Intellectual Property Administration and other departments attended. Leaders from ARIPO, OAPI and IP departments of Poland, Algeria and other countries and regions were also invited.

Shen Changyu, Director of the Organizing Committee of the event and Commissioner of CNIPA, introduced the key activity arrangements during the Public Week. State Administration for Market Regulation will centrally destroy the infringing and fake goods in Hubei; National Copyright Administration and CNIPA will jointly hold the Press Conference on China's IPR development in 2018 at the State Council Information Office; National Copyright Administration will hold the National Conference on Copyright Protection and Development in Digital Environment; the Supreme People's Court will publish the Annual Report on Intellectual Property Cases ; the Supreme People's Procuratorate will introduce the IP protection status of prosecutorial organs and publish typical cases; Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will publish the China Online Copyright Annual Report ; Ministry of Public Security will publish the 10 typical cases of IP infringement cracked down on by public security organs since 2018; Ministry of Justice will organize to carry out activities focusing on IP law publicity and education; Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs will organize to carry out publicity activities on geographical indications of agricultural products; Ministry of Culture and Tourism will organize to carry out IP protection publicity activities; National Health Commission will hold Symposium on IPRs in Health Science Innovation; General Administration of Customs will publish China Customs' Protection of Intellectual Property and Top Ten Cases ; National Forestry and Grassland Administration will hold the Symposium on the 20th Anniversary of China Joining the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants and publish the Yearbook of China's Forestry Intellectual Property . More than 1,000 theme activities are being and will be centrally carried out nationwide.

In his speech, Francis Gurry thanked the government of China for the long-term support for WIPO. He also expressed his congratulations on the outstanding achievements China has made in IP over the 40 years, believing that China has become a model for global IP creation and protection. He appreciated China's National IP Publicity Week activities that have been held for many years, extended his thanks to China and Algeria for their important proposal on establishing the"World Intellectual Property Day" in 1999 and thoroughly expounded the theme of the 19th World Intellectual Property Day of "Reach for Gold: IP and Sports".

At the home event, Xu Mengtao, athlete representative and world champion of freestyle skiing expressed the initiative to the whole society of respecting IP and jointly protecting sports IP.

As one of the highlights of the home event, the Ceremony for Signing the Memorandum of Understanding on Establishing Technology and Innovation Support Centers in China and for Granting Certifications for the First Batch of TISCs by WIPO and CNIPA was held. As reported, TISCs is a program under WIPO's development agenda framework which provides innovators in developing countries with access to high-quality technology information, helping them to master the industry trends and latest technology information more quickly. The seven TISCs institutions of the first batch including Beijing Zhongguancun Science Park in Fengtai District were certificated at the site.

More than 300 people, including officer representatives from related international organizations and governments of related countries, officers of embassies in China and IP commissioner representatives of related countries, related principals of the Organizing Committee members of the Publicity Week, famous domestic and foreign enterprises, noted public figures, experts and scholars and journalists attended the event.

2019 is the first year of National IP Publicity Week after reforms in national and local IP institutions. It is reported that with the successful completion of such reforms, the integrated IP management efficiency has been effectively improved, domestic innovation environment has been further optimized and the innovation capacity of main players of innovation is also continuously enhanced. By the end of 2018, the number of China's invention patents (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) was up to 1,602,000, the number of invention patents per 10,000 heads reached 11.5, the number of valid trademark registrations was 19.564 million and every 5.8 main market players on average possess one valid trademark. All these make China a genuine big country of IPRs.