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 Section Represented at International Intellectual Property Rights Roundtable in China The third annual Intellectual Property Rights Roundtable, organized by the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, was held on January 13, 2005, in Beijing, China. This annual event brought together over 250 government officials and industry representatives from the United States, China, Europe and Japan. Elizabeth Chien-Hale, the Chair of the Section’s China Task Force, and Joseph Rogers, Section member and Intellectual Property Director of Alcatel Shanghai Bell, attended the Roundtable on behalf of the Section. The high-level representatives from the U.S. government included Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans and Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property Jon Dudas. The focus of the U.S. government’s position remained on the transparency and efficiency of the existing system, including improvement on criminal enforcement of intellectual property rights. Secretary Evans emphasized that the U.S. government would like to see results rather than process, and underscored three cases during his luncheon keynote address: GM Daewoo suing China’s Chery for automobile design similarities between GM’s Spark and Chery’s QQ, Pfizer’s invalidated patent for its Viagra medication, and the large quantity of counterfeit goods using NBA logos and trademarks manufactured in China for sale in China and abroad. The industry representatives discussed issues of general interest, such as market access, and more industry-specific issues such as standards for the information technology sector and data protection for the pharmaceutical industry. Representatives from Europe and Japan also presented their views on the Chinese IP system. On the Chinese side, Vice-Premier Ms. Wu Yi provided a summary of activities undertaken by the Chinese government to address the intellectual property concerns of U.S. companies. First, the State Council has set up an IPR Protection Working Group with Vice-Premier Wu as its director, which coordinates 12 departments – including the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Public Security, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the National Copyright Office, the State Intellectual Property Office, and the General Administration of Customs, among others – to make concerted efforts on protecting intellectual property rights. The working group, in addition to other initiatives, launched a specialized campaign for IPR protection throughout China to identify priority areas and major infringement cases. Furthermore, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate have jointly promulgated the Interpretation on Several Issues Regarding the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Infringement on Intellectual Property Rights. The drafters in the process consulted not only ministries within the Chinese government, but also organizations such as the Business Software Alliance, MPAA, and AmCham China. This new judicial interpretation considerably readjusted the criteria for conviction and sentencing of IP-related crimes, clarified ambiguous concepts and terms in the IP infringement provisions of Chinese Criminal Law, and provided for accomplice liability. USPTO Director Jon Dudas called a separate meeting the next day between industry representatives and Commerce Department personnel working on China-related intellectual property issues to discuss how the USPTO can offer technical assistance to reduce piracy and counterfeiting in China. The USPTO currently provides assistance for administrative process and the rule of law, office management, data exclusivity as it relates to patents, improvements in the design patent system, protection of well-known marks, and protection of intellectual property as it relates to the use of the Internet. The USPTO has been granted $20 million for technical assistance to countries around the world, including China, and information relating to technical assistance programs can be found at the State Department’s website, at www.state.gov. |
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