What they say
Editor’s note: The State Council Information Office invited five experts on intellectual property on Tuesday to meet journalists and answer questions on the issues of reform and opening-up and the development of intellectual property law in China. Here are some highlights:
We can say we now have a better legal system for safeguarding IP rights, thanks to great efforts in the industry’s development of law over the past 30 years. Take the patent agent sector as an example. We’ve established a rule on agent training. Under it, all patent agents are ordered to receive training every year. The legal document also clarifies how to get further training. In addition, we designed online training and published some books for the convenience of agents in rural areas.
Yang Wu, head of All-China Patent Attorneys Association
There are two major challenges in our IP development. One is to improve our innovative ability; the other is how to strengthen IP application. We should not only pay attention to the IP quantity and quality but also take economic benefits or added value into consideration. We need to transfer the IP, such as works and trademarks, to productive forces. China must solve both problems if it wants to be a powerful IP country, not just a big IP country.
Wu Handong, former president of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law
It’s a good thing that China ranks at the top worldwide in patent applications. It shows our major progress in the IP sector over the past decades. But it doesn’t mean we are blindly optimistic
about quantity. Instead, we’re exerting great effort to improve patent quality. The State Intellectual Property Office has put quality higher in our work and taken steps against low-quality patent applications. Yin Xintian, former director of the legal affairs department of the State Intellectual Property Office
Chinese high-tech enterprises, including us, should respect intellectual property and abide by related international rules in developing businesses overseas. In 2005, when we extended the business, we found our original trademark, Legend, had been registered. Making respect for IP a priority, we changed Legend to Lenovo, and registered the new trademark as quickly as we could in more than 100 countries worldwide. That’s the pattern we followed with international IP protection rules and effectively solved the IP problems we met in overseas markets.
Chen Yuanqing, director of IP Counsel of Chinese computer giant Lenovo Group
With fast developments in technology, industry and economy, patents in China have also entered a new era. As a technology researcher, I’ve kept an eye on patent developments. On April 1, 1985, when our nation’s first Patent Law took effect, I submitted materials and had the honor of being the first applicant nationwide. New technologies bring new ideas, and these ideas may bring us new achievements in the patent field.
Hu Guohua, the first patent applicant after the founding of the People’s Republic of China