BEIJING, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- As an important part of the construction of the Belt and Road, international cooperation on intellectual property (IP) along the Belt and Road routes has been deepened constantly.
As one of the highlights, the High-Level Conference on Intellectual Property for Countries along the Belt and Road was held in July 2016, not only marking a new chapter of cooperation on IP among related countries and regions, but also further deepening the cooperation between China and other countries along the routes in a wider range and on a higher level. It is an important event to improve the invention and application of IPs in countries and regions along the routes, inject vitality into the society through entrepreneurship and innovation, and promote innovation in related countries and regions.
--Enterprises eager to go global, driving development of related countries and regions
Haier recently reached a strategic cooperation on standards with Pakistan, reshaping their cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in terms of the depth and breadth of industrial co-prosperity, said Wang Jianguo, general manager with brand strategy of Haier.
At present, the company is striving to train a large number of professionals in home appliances in Pakistan. This will not only upgrade the local technical standards of home appliances, but also greatly improve the manufacturing level of enterprises along the local industrial chain. For the next step, Haier will support Pakistan in the fields of intellectual property and technical standards, and take part in the standard setting of Pakistan’s household appliances sector, said Wang.
As a leading Chinese enterprise in home appliances, Haier has had 27 factories in countries and regions along the routes, accounting for 50 percent of the total overseas factories. Haier hopes to help the whole industry to "go global" in a faster and better way through participating in the standard setting. The cooperation with Pakistan has also made Haier leap forward from "going global" to "going up", and the cooperation achievement under the BRI will be shared more broadly, Wang said.
With the further promotion of the BRI, Chinese enterprises are increasingly eager to go global. According to the statistics from China's State Intellectual Property Office, in 2017, China applied for 5,608 patents in other countries along the routes, up 16 percent year on year. While other countries along the routes applied for 4,319 patents in China, up 16.8 percent compared to that of 2016.
--Mutually-benefiting cooperation to address concerns of enterprises
The State Intellectual Property Office announced on March 2 that Cambodia had begun to accept the applications for validating invention patents that are already valid in China. This is different from other international systems of patent examination. The invention patents valid in China will take effect in Cambodia by a simple registration process, showing Cambodia's direct recognition of the patent examination results of China.
In this way, Chinese patent holders can gain quick and easy access to patentrights and other related protection in Cambodia while avoiding lengthy and substantial examination procedures, and saving application costs. This is not only a milestone of cooperation on IP between China and Cambodia, but also a breakthrough of intellectual property cooperation among the BRI countries.
China National Heavy Machinery Corporation (CHMC) entered the Cambodian market as early as in 2007, and has invested billions of U.S. dollars in the construction of hydropower stations and transmission lines there. CHMC has built about 30 percent of the transmission lines in Cambodia. However, the weakness in IP protection, long patent examination cycle and other issues have been common concerns of Chinese enterprises like CHMC investing in Cambodia due to differences in regional cultures and development stages.
Strengthening cooperation on IP between the two countries will enable Chinese enterprises in Cambodia to enjoy the same intellectual property protection as at home, thus clearing out the potential obstacles in the way of development for these enterprises. Industrial insider with CHMC noted that more high-quality intellectual property services will benefit the countries and regions along the BRI routes, promote the improvement of the IP systems of all these countries, and create a good business environment for the investment of Chinese enterprises.
The BRI originates from China but benefits the world, which aims to share China's opportunities for development and achieve common prosperity with all the countries along the routes. The 2018 High-level Conference on Intellectual Property for Countries along the Belt and Road will be held in Beijing on August 28-29, marking a new journey of cooperation on IP among the BRI countries. (Edited by Ma Xin, maxin11@xinhua.org)
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