Xi pledges enhanced IP protection

President Xi Jinping has expressed China's willingness to further strengthen international cooperation in protecting intellectual property rights and contribute its wisdom and solutions to creating an international environment conducive to innovation and development.

He made the remarks in a congratulatory letter sent to the 2024 International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property World Congress, which opened on Saturday in Hangzhou, the capital of East China's Zhejiang province.

It was the first time that the annual world congress of the group, a global nongovernmental organization that uses the French abbreviation AIPPI and is dedicated to the development and improvement of IP-related laws, was held outside Europe and in China, since the association was formed 127 years ago.

Xi said in the letter that China has always attached great importance to the protection of IP rights and has actively promoted efforts to build itself into an IP powerhouse.

China is willing to work with all parties to firmly safeguard the international IP multilateral system, promote the development of a global IP governance system in a more just and reasonable direction, and make contributions to the well-being of humankind, he said.

In recent years, China has made historic accomplishments in IPR protection, which encourages innovation and provides a strong boost to the competitiveness of the Chinese economy.

Daren Tang, director-general of the World Intellectual Property Organization, said that as more countries around the world are turning to innovation, creativity and IP to drive growth, the hosting of the AIPPI world congress in China for the first time highlighted the importance of working in partnership to strengthen the global IP ecosystem.

"One of the most striking IP developments in recent decades has been its explosive growth," Tang said in a video address, noting that a clear example is China's use of the Patent Cooperation Treaty, an international agreement that helps inventors and businesses apply for patents in multiple countries at the same time.

China has been the world's most active applicant for international patents for five consecutive years, with over 70,000 applications in 2023. The figure was just over 100 when the country joined the Patent Cooperation Treaty in 1994.

Hemant Singh, president of AIPPI India, said that in a global market where knowledge is driving economic development, nobody can benefit single-handedly without sharing knowledge with others.

He said that China, as a huge market with so much technical advancement and innovation, has the opportunity to lead the world in terms of how intellectual property should be protected, thus boosting the confidence of innovators and investors in China.

"So they are encouraged to come and invest more and more and China is encouraged to export more and more. It's a win-win thing for everyone," Singh said.

Speaking at the conference, Shen Changyu, head of the China National Intellectual Property Administration, said that China will make vigorous efforts to provide equal protection for all types of innovators and both domestic and foreign enterprises in terms of intellectual property rights.

Shen also said that China will work to accelerate the construction of an open, inclusive, equitable and beneficial international IP system on the basis of active participation and consensus-building.

The congress, which will run through Tuesday, attracted more than 2,300 delegates from over 92 countries and regions, including over 1,500 foreign delegates.

Pablo Fuentes, from Mexico-based IP firm Breakthrough, said that "our clients are looking more and more to file and protect their trademarks and patents in China".

"That's why we are here, and we are very interested in enhancing our relationship with China and for our clients as well," he said.

Themed "Balanced Protection and Innovative Development of IP Rights", the 2024 AIPPI World Congress was co-organized by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the AIPPI.