The China digital disk technologies community announced Tuesday that it will promote an upgraded consumer electronic product, in place of DVD, in the coming golden sales season.

A spokesman for the community said it was hoped the new audio and video device, EVD or enhanced versatile disk, would attack the market share of DVD, or digital video disk.

Funded by the government, major Chinese manufacturers initiated research to develop EVD in 1999.

Beijing E-world Technology Co., Ltd., a window company of the community, said that it has already overcome all difficulties from primary development, chip designing and industrialization.

The community applied 25 patents for the EVD technologies, with seven being granted patents. Some 40 more patent applications are also in the pipeline.

In addition, the community submitted an application for EVD technical standards to the International Electro Technical Commission and the International Organization for Standardization.

Wang Jingchuan, commissioner of China's State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), said that by developing and promoting EVD, Chinese companies gained much experience in competing with their global counterparts.

(Xinhua News Agency November 18, 2003)