Premier Wen Jiabao on Tuesday told European business leaders
that China was firmly committed to the protection of intellectual
property rights (IPR).
In a speech entitled "Enhance Cooperation to Make Win-win
Progress" at the 2006 China-Europe business summit, Wen said IPR
protection was necessary, not only for China to fulfill its
international obligations, but also to promote its development and
enhance its capacity for independent innovation.
He said China had adopted the Copyright Law, the Patent Law, the
Trademark Law and other IPR-related laws. China is a party to major
international conventions on IPR protection and has signed
bilateral agreements and established dialogue mechanisms on IPR
protection with European Union (EU) member states and many other
countries.
The Chinese government had set up a task force on IPR
protection, opened 50 centers for handling IPR violation complaints
across the country and strengthened government IPR protection
agencies, he added.
"We have stepped up law enforcement, lowered the threshold for
imposing criminal penalties on IPR violations and intensified
efforts to crack down on IPR-related offenses," Wen said.
China hoped to strengthen its cooperation with the EU by giving
full play to the role of the China-EU Dialogue Mechanism on IPR, he
said.
He also said that China was critical of the practice of
maintaining technology monopoly by abusing IPR agreements and
rules.
"The Knowledge of mankind should be used to better serve
mankind," Wen said.
(Xinhua News Agency September 13, 2006)
