WIPO Office in China Celebrates One Year of Operations

July 22, 2015

One year after its inauguration in July 2014, senior Chinese officials and WIPO’s Director General Francis Gurry welcomed progress by the WIPO Office in China (WOC) in promoting the range of WIPO services and products to the Chinese business community and other innovators and creators in the country.

In a recorded message to a ceremony on July 22 to mark the first anniversary of the WOC, Mr. Gurry said the “WIPO Office in China has really been embraced by all of the stakeholders in China,” and welcomed the opportunity for WIPO “to be part of the momentous development that is occurring in the Chinese economy and in China’s embracing of intellectual property and use of intellectual property as a major tool for economic development in the context of a very highly innovative and dynamic economy.”

From left to right: Vice Mayor of the Beijing Municipal Government Sui Zhengjiang, SIPO Commissioner Shen Changyu (Photo: WIPO/ Yi Wang).

“Over the course of that long-standing relationship that we have had, we have seen China commence afresh in the field of intellectual property and undertake a journey to become a major intellectual property power---the biggest patent office in the world, the biggest trademark office in the world, the biggest design office in the world, major producer of cultural works.”

In 2013, China’s patent office received just over a third of the 2.57 million patent applications worldwide and the trademark office saw, by far, the highest trademarking activity. Two Chinese telecoms giants - Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd and ZTE Corp. - were among the top three filers of international patent applications in 2014.

As such, the Director General said that it is “very fitting that the World Intellectual Property Organization sought to establish a presence in China and in Beijing in particular. And that is very much, we hope, in keeping with the economic strategy of the Chinese authorities with the “ New Normal” mode and the emphasis on an innovation-driven economic development.”

WIPO Deputy Director General Binying Wang (center) with the WIPO Office in China (WOC) team. From left to right: Program Officer Junqin Zhang; Director of WOC Hongbing Chen; Deputy Director of WOC Guoliang Lu; Program Officer Yuhua Deng (Photo: WIPO/ Yi Wang).

Mr. Gurry thanked Chinese authorities, both national and local, for their support. “We are really extraordinarily grateful for this engagement on the part of all of the Chinese authorities, as I have said, both national and local, and the extraordinarily constructive cooperation that we’v e been proud to be the recipient of.”

High ranking Chinese officials attending the July 22 ceremony reaffirmed their support of WIPO’s Office in China and said its positive impact has already been felt in one year of operations.

State Intellectual Property Office Commissioner (SIPO) Shen Changyu said WIPO's presence in China, and the Chinese Government's support of the WIPO Office in China, is a further sign of China's resolve to creating an enabling environment for innovation and creativity to flourish through use of intellectual property.

Vice Minister Ma Zhengqi of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce welcomed the strengthening of ties between China IP authorities and WIPO through the work of the WIPO Office in China and hoped this would continue in light of the Government’s emphasis on innovation as a driver of economic growth.

Vice Mayor of Beijing’s Municipal Government Sui Zhenjiang said relations with the Beijing Municipal Government had strengthened as a result of cooperation with the WIPO Office in China and hoped that the latter would continue its efforts to further develop understanding of IP for the benefit of China’s business community.

Deputy Director General Tang Zhaozhi of the Copyright Department of the National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC) said there has been excellent cooperation in the field of copyright between NCAC and WIPO since the WIPO Office in China was set up and he hoped this would further develop in the interest of the copyright community in China and abroad, as well as for all stakeholders.

In its first year, the WOC strengthened collaborative relations with relevant Chinese government departments, the private sector and academia. A number of outreach activities aimed at enhancing awareness of intellectual property rights and WIPO’s activities in China were also organized over the past year. The WOC organized over a dozen workshops on WIPO services and a number of events to promote WIPO treaties, namely the WIPO Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances and the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled. A helpline clocked over 300 phone calls from potential and current users of WIPO global IP services.