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Custom officers put allegedly
unauthorized Olympic coins and other items that they seized on display in
Shenyang, Liaoning province, late last month. The government has declared
a special crackdown on manufacture and sale of fake Beijing Olympics and
Shanghai World Expo related items.(Photo: China Daily)
Photo
Gallery>>> |
BEIJING,
March 4 -- The mechanism to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) will be
implemented fully across the country this year, a top IPR official has said.
"The mechanism is vital for the improvement of the
country's IPR system and spurring the economy and scientific development," State
Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) commissioner Tian Lipu said recently.
The mechanism was adopted in July 2005 with the aim
of spreading IPR knowledge among the Chinese to enhance their awareness.
The government will set up about 40 service centers
to help implement the IPR mechanism. The subsidized centers will offer
consultations and financial support to people who cannot afford to apply for IPR
protection.
Encouraging hi-tech development among enterprises
will get priority under the mechanism, Tian said. And 17 provinces,
municipalities and autonomous regions, including as Guangdong, Guizhou, Shandong
and Shanghai have already issued regulations to develop independent hi-tech
projects under IPR protection.
Domestic companies and research institutes submitted
5,401 applications for PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) last year, up 38 percent
year-on-year, reflecting the growing awareness of IPR laws. And most of the
authorized applicants were from the fields of traditional Chinese medicine and
food and soft drink, according to SIPO figures.
China, of course, accepts IPR applications from
abroad under the WTO framework, and the requirements for them are the same as
those for domestic ones, Tian said. But the number of Chinese applying abroad
for PCT is less than those from overseas applying in China. The number of
applications submitted from abroad reached 92,000 last year, up 4.5 percent over
2006.
Also SIPO will intensify efforts this year to
identify people who tend to submit fake innovations for PCT to cash in on their
claims in advertisements.
Responding to the doubts raised by some foreign
countries on the quality of authorized IPR application in China, Tian said SIPO
has set up a special computerized supervision system to help block excessive
junk applications. It can reject similar or repeat applications.
The country is alert against IPR for the big two
events, the Beijing Olympic Games and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, too, he
said.
The Beijing Intellectual Property Administration
(BIPA) will open an IPR information website on April 1 to spread Olympic and IPR
knowledge among the public. People can report IPR violations on the Beijing
Olympics either on the website or dial the hotline 12315 to report trademark
infringement cases, BIPA official Zhang Boyou said.
And the National Copyright Administration of China
will strengthen supervision across the country to safeguard the copyright for
songs and music related to the Olympics, spokeswoman Duan Yuping said.
Shanghai, too, is intensifying efforts to deal with IPR infringements for the 2010 World Expo.
