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EU forum focuses on IPR protection
By Cui Ning (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-07-05 22:07
The European Union (EU) and the National Copyright Administration of China
are focusing on ways to further improve enforcement of intellectual property
rights (IPR), officials attending a joint IPR exchange programme said.
China will fight piracy and further educate the public on anti-piracy issues
throughout this year, administration official Wang Ziqiang said Monday in
Beijing.
Paul Vandoren, head of an IPR unit at the Directorate-General for Trade at
the European Commission, said "tremendous change has taken place in China as the
Chinese Government has realized the importance of IPR protection. "
Vandoren, who has been concerned about China's IPR system since 1993, said he
is very impressed with the progress of the IPR system in the country during the
past two decades. And he is more concerned with IPR legislation and enforcement
in the country.
China should do more to ensure an effective enforcement across the nation, he
said.
The Chinese should also undertake additional efforts to implement regulations
to ensure copyright holders of music and video products are paid from
broadcasters, said Vandoren.
Currently, the country has no official regulations clearly defining payment
rules from broadcasters to copyright holders for use of products that are not
published.
Vandoren said he is glad to learn that China will soon set up a national
intellectual property rights task group with Vice-Premier Wu Yi as its leader.
He hopes it will mobilize regional IPR administrations to approach more
effective enforcement.
He said the EU will co-operate more with China's State Intellectual Property
Office and other IPR-related departments to propel the country's IPR
development.
Wang said the administration is actively working with the State
Administration of Radio, Film and Television to work out a regulation as soon as
possible, so as to better protect copyright holders of music and video products.
He said China is also drafting rules to protect copyrights of works published
on the Internet.
China did make remarkable progress on IPR protection over the past two
decades, with patent, trademark and copyright laws and regulations basically
meeting international standards, and judicial and administration enforcement
being in parallel for supervision, said Wang.
However, piracy activities are still rampant in some areas because the
public's IPR awareness is too weak due to 40 years of a planned economy.
Besides, with a 1.3 billion population and most residents having lower incomes,
a market for cheaper pirated products is rampant, he said.
"We must further tighten anti-piracy activities to avoid those activities
becoming more so," " said Wang. He added that the Chinese government is willing
to listen to opinions and suggestions from European and other countries.
The EU-China joint IPR programme was prepared in 1996 and substantially
implemented in 2000, aiming to propel China's IPR development across the
country. It focused on training Chinese judges and lawyers, education within
administrative departments and the public, and assistance to universities and
research institutions.
The two sides have conducted mutual specialists exchanges and held a series
of seminars.
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