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The Intellectual Property Department and the Intellectual Property Office of the Guangdong Province jointly held a forum today (December 11) to help Hong Kong enterprises better understand the state intellectual property strategy.
Speaking at the opening of China¡¯s Intellectual Property Strategy Forum, the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mrs Rita Lau, said learning more about the national intellectual property regulations and policies could help Hong Kong enterprises further develop their business on the Mainland.
¡°I hope Hong Kong enterprises can gain a more in-depth understanding of the ¡®Outline of the National Intellectual Property Strategy¡¯ so that they can tie in with the national policy, enhance their competitive advantages and open up more opportunities,¡± Mrs Lau said.
¡°The Intellectual Property Department will continue to work closely with the relevant mainland authorities to help Hong Kong businessmen investing on the Mainland, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, raise awareness of intellectual property protection and the standard of administration.¡±
The forum¡¯s keynote speaker, Commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office, Mr Tian Lipu, introduced the strategic goals, strategic focuses, specific tasks and strategic measures of the ¡°Outline of the National Intellectual Property Strategy¡±.
He said that the outline was formulated to improve the Mainland¡¯s capacity to create, utilise, protect and administer intellectual property, to make it an innovative country and to attain the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.
¡°The core of the outline is to push forward system reform and improve the intellectual property regime. The major work is to encourage independent innovation to support the construction of an innovative nation. The objective is to build a constructive interactive platform on which policies are formulated to boost innovation, and innovation in turn expedites development,¡± Mr Tian said.
Also speaking at the forum, the Secretary of the CPC Committee and Deputy Director General of the Intellectual Property Office of the Guangdong Province, Mr Ma Xianmin, said the promulgation of ¡°Outline of the National Intellectual Property Strategy¡± and ¡°Intellectual Property Strategic Plan of Guangdong Province¡± had brought an unprecedented opportunity to the development of intellectual property industries in Guangdong.
¡°In June, Guangdong Province laid down the goal of establishing a strong intellectual property (IP) regime. The implementation of IP strategy is the fundamental way to realise the scientific development of IP industries in Guangdong.¡±
¡°In the next stage, Guangdong will launch in phases annual plans to take forward the implementation of the IP strategy using scientific and systematic measures,¡± Mr Ma said.
The State Council promulgated the ¡°Outline of the National Intellectual Property Strategy¡± this June and approved the implementation of the strategy.
Participants in today¡¯s forum included Hong Kong entrepreneurs, IP practitioners, executives and government officials.
For details of the forum, please visit the Intellectual Property Department website at (www.ipd.gov.hk).
Ends/Thursday, December 11, 2008
Issued at HKT 15:08
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