China, UK Sign Ground-breaking Agreements

22 November 2012

The UK and China signed two ground-breaking intellectual property agreements in February as part of a summit meeting between the two countries, according to a statement issued by the UK Intellectual Property Office.The agreements, which cover patents and trademarks, aim to encourage and make it easier for UK and Chinese businesses to develop products and services from new ideas and innovation.

The patents agreement will tackle the problem of backlogs in the application process by reducing duplication and delays in the processing of patent applications by enabling UK and Chinese examiners to make better use of each others’ work; and promote and encourage the use and understanding of the countries’ respective intellectual property systems by Chinese and UK businesses.

The trademarks agreement promotes cooperation between the Intellectual Property Office and the China Trade Mark Office, including the exchange of best practice and training.

“The agreements announced today will help to make it quicker and easier for businesses in our two countries to better protect and exploit their ideas,” said the UK Minister of State for Intellectual Property David Lammy. “They will improve the global IP system to make it effective, efficient and accessible to all innovative companies.”

The agreements will be followed up with a series of staff exchanges and joint UK/China outreach events to business over the coming year, said the IPO.