March 2009
The UK and China have recently concluded two landmark agreements relating to cooperation on patent and trade mark prosecution, which will be followed by a series of staff exchanges to both countries.
In short, the aim of the deals is to encourage UK and Chinese product development and to stimulate innovation, by removing certain hurdles and delays at the respective patent offices. This will be done by reducing duplication by enabling UK and Chinese examiners to work more closely together, and by promoting greater understanding of each others’ IP systems.
Tian Lipu, Commissioner of the Chinese Intellectual Property Office, said that the agreement on patents was ‘a step towards making the system more efficient for both UK and Chinese business’ and David Lammy, UK Minister for IP, said it ‘will improve the global IP system to make it effective, efficient and accessible to all innovative companies’.