On November 10th, the Intellectual Property Dialogue Lunch for Ambassadors was held in Beijing, attended by the Minister of Commerce Chen Deming and the American Ambassador to China Hong Baipai, who共同had lunch with the industry to exchange views on Sino-US economic and trade relations and intellectual property issues. Chen Deming delivered a speech at the meeting, the main content of which is as follows:

Since the beginning of this year, China-US economic and trade relations have continued to maintain a stable and sound growth trend. The bilateral trade volume reached US$278.5 billion in the first three quarters, a year-on-year increase of 32%. Among this, China imported US$73 billion from the US, up by 34%; and exported US$205.5 billion to the US, up by 31%. China has approved the establishment of 1,155 US-funded enterprises. As of the end of September 2010, the US has made nearly 60,000 investment projects in China. Chinese enterprises’ investment in the US has also shown an increasing trend. As of the end of August 2010, China’s non-financial direct investment in the US has reached US$4.17 billion, covering many fields such as industry, agriculture, science and technology, tourism, finance, insurance, transportation and engineering contracting.

Intellectual property rights have always been a key issue in the economic and trade relations between China and the United States. China and the United States share common goals and interests in the protection of intellectual property rights. The United States is the most innovative country in the world, with the highest number of patent applications for many years. The United States has a strong advantage in the technology trade field centered on intellectual property rights. China has become the third largest market for the export of U.S. technology. China also attaches great importance to technological innovation and focuses on giving full play to the role of science and technology in economic development. In 2009, China's total R&D expenditure ranked among the top five in the world, with the total R&D expenditure accounting for about 1.6% of GDP. China is becoming one of the fastest-growing countries in the world in terms of R&D expenditure and is increasingly enhancing its innovation vitality.

At present, China is at a critical period of building a well-off society in an all-round way. Strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights is not only the objective requirement for economic and social development and an important support for building an innovative country, but also a realistic need to respect international rules and maintain fair competition.

Since the reform and opening-up, China has established a complete system of intellectual property protection laws and regulations that is in line with the national conditions and also in line with the international rules; a system of intellectual property law enforcement that combines law enforcement and judicial protection has been established, and a special administrative law enforcement team for trademarks and patents has been formed, with more than 400,000 administrative law enforcement officers for trademarks and 15,000 administrative law enforcement officers for patents; all the higher people's courts and most of the intermediate and basic-level people's courts have established special intellectual property courts, with 2,126 judges engaged in intellectual property trials; the "Action Plan for the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights" has been issued for five consecutive years, and 1,051 specific measures have been taken in 10 fields; China has established a regular consultation mechanism on intellectual property rights with the United States, the European Union, Japan and other countries and regions, and the international exchange and cooperation on intellectual property rights are more frequent and in-depth.

Especially in 2008, the Chinese government formulated the "National Intellectual Property Strategy Outline", which elevated intellectual property to the national strategy level, and the protection of intellectual property has been continuously strengthened, with very obvious results. The development of China's intellectual property protection work has greatly enhanced the confidence of foreign investors. At present, China is one of the countries with the most foreign capital attracted in the world. As of September 2010, China has accumulated a total of US $1.06 trillion in foreign capital, ranking first among developing countries for 18 consecutive years. More than 470 of the Fortune Global 500 companies have settled in China, and the number of foreign patent applications in China has reached 1 million. More than 1,200 R&D centers of multinational companies have been established in China, and foreign-funded enterprises have become an important part of China's R&D and innovation activities.

China's intellectual property protection work started late, but has made rapid progress. It has covered the course of hundreds of years in developed countries in more than 30 years, and the achievements are plain to see. At the same time, we are also soberly aware that there are still some shortcomings in China's intellectual property protection. In some regions and fields, the phenomenon of infringement and counterfeiting, and the production and sale of counterfeit products is still relatively serious, and the law enforcement efforts and efficiency of intellectual property rights still need to be improved. Some American companies have doubts about China's intellectual property protection, and we fully understand the concerns of the companies. Please believe that the Chinese government is determined, confident and capable of comprehensively improving the level of intellectual property protection and cracking down on illegal acts that infringe on intellectual property rights.

Recently, the State Council of China decided that from October this year to March next year, a special action to crack down on infringement of intellectual property rights and the production and sale of counterfeit goods will be launched nationwide for half a year, while improving the policies and systems for the protection of intellectual property rights. Last week, the State Council held a national teleconference on intellectual property protection and law enforcement, at which Premier Wen Jiabao personally attended and delivered an important speech, making a powerful and specific mobilization and deployment for this special action. I will now make a brief introduction:

First, focus on key links to ensure practical results. This special operation will start from the source of production, severely investigate and deal with illegal printing, copying of various publications, printed materials,CDs, computer software and packaging, trademarks and labels, etc. Strengthen the supervision and management of product quality, strictly review the qualifications of production enterprises, and resolutely ban unlicensed production and other behaviors. Strengthen market supervision, severely crack down on piracy and patent infringement, counterfeiting and other behaviors. Strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in import and export links and fields such as the Internet. Intensify the criminal judicial strike, and maintain a high-pressure posture against the crime of infringing intellectual property rights.

The second is to highlight key areas and solve urgent problems. This special action will focus on the copyright, trademark, patent and plant variety rights, which the right owners are more concerned about, and the product manufacturing centralized places, commodity distribution places, and the high incidence of intellectual property rights infringement and the production and sale of counterfeit goods, which are the key rectification areas. The key rectification fields are the news出版 industry, cultural entertainment industry, high-tech industry, agriculture, and the key objects to be investigated are books, audio-visual products, software, bulk export commodities, automobile spare parts, mobile phones, pharmaceuticals, seeds, etc.

Third, we will focus on the present and plan for the long term. This special operation will combat a batch of major counterfeiting and infringement cases, expose a batch of illegal enterprises, deter illegal activities, and enhance the awareness of intellectual property rights in the whole society. At the same time, the special operation will be closely integrated with long-term system and cultural construction, and the system and mechanism of intellectual property protection will be improved. On the one hand, we will continue to promote the construction of the legal system of intellectual property rights, play a significant role in judicial protection of intellectual property rights, intensify the punishment of infringement, improve the procedures for the confirmation of intellectual property rights and infringement litigation, simplify the procedures for relief, improve the efficiency of trials, reduce the cost of safeguarding rights, intensify civil compensation and the implementation of judgments, and increase the cost of infringement. On the other hand, we will further improve the policy system for the protection of intellectual property rights, strengthen the intellectual property review and management in the process of government procurement, resolutely prevent counterfeit and imitation goods from entering the government procurement channels, and state organs should fully use genuine software.

Protecting intellectual property rights is a global issue that requires the joint efforts of all countries. To solve the problems encountered by China and the United States in intellectual property rights, it is necessary to have a comprehensive Sino-US economic and trade relationship as the basis, and more importantly, in-depth exchanges and cooperation between the two countries in the field of intellectual property rights. To this end, I propose the following:

First, efforts should be made to seek a balance point that takes into account the interests of both China and the United States on intellectual property protection standards. The development of the intellectual property system in the United States has a history of more than a hundred years, while the establishment and improvement of China's intellectual property system have only taken more than 30 years. Therefore, it is inevitable that there are some differences between the two sides on intellectual property protection standards. How to seek common ground while reserving differences and find a balance point that is recognized by both sides requires close cooperation and unremitting efforts from relevant departments in China and the United States.

Second, strengthen China-US cooperation on intellectual property protection and jointly address new challenges. With the development of economic globalization and information technology, intellectual property protection is facing more new challenges. The issues of internet counterfeiting and piracy are very prominent, and the infringement issues in international trade involve multiple links such as importers, retailers and consumers, forming a complex chain. The solution to these new situations and new problems requires the relevant departments of China and the United States to strengthen information sharing and continuously expand the fields and depth of cooperation.

Throughout history, innovation has been the inexhaustible driving force for the development and progress of human civilization. Encouraging innovation and strengthening intellectual property protection are the common responsibilities of governments around the world. The Chinese government will actively promote intellectual property protection work with a responsible attitude, conscientiously fulfill its international obligations, and is willing to strengthen extensive cooperation with the US government and industry in the field of intellectual property, to improve the level of intellectual property protection, promote the exchange and dissemination of technology, and contribute to the harmonious development of Sino-US economic and trade relations.

For related questions, please consult Huaxu Zhengxin Intellectual Property: Phone 010-67089491, WeChat official account: huaip1, or email:info@huaip.com.