The 13th Meeting of the Guangdong/Hong Kong Expert Group on Protection of Intellectual Property Rights was held in Guangzhou on July 25. The Expert Group agreed to continue deepening and actively promoting co-operation on IP in Hong Kong and Guangdong and fostering the development of IP trading in both places.
Co-operation projects of the Expert Group for 2014-15 cover five areas, namely:
* Reinforcing co-operation on cross-boundary protection of IP in Guangdong and Hong Kong;
* Promoting co-operation on IP trading and services in both places;
* Promoting exchange and deliberation in IP in both places;
* Improving guidance service in IP in both places; and
* Organising IP publicity and education activities in both places.
The two sides shared their latest developments in IP co-operation and reviewed the projects completed in the past year at the meeting. These developments included organising the "Guangdong/Hong Kong Seminars on IP and Development of Small and Medium Enterprises," an exchange programme and seminar on promoting the development of IP trading in Guangdong and Hong Kong, an exchange programme between IP-related non-government organisations in Guangdong and Hong Kong, as well as jointly producing an Announcement of Public Interest on the "No-Fakes Pledge" Scheme.
Law enforcement agencies in Guangdong and Hong Kong have continued to work closely in the past year to combat the smuggling of infringing goods across the boundaries under the co-ordination mechanism for handling IP-related cases.
During the press conference after the meeting, the Director of Intellectual Property, Ada Leung, said, "Fostering IP Trading in Guangdong and Hong Kong is an emphasis of the Expert Group. Over the past year, a number of co-operation items were themed IP Trading. They effectively strengthened the exchange and co-operation on IP Trading of the enterprises in the two places."
The leader of the Guangdong delegation, the Director-General of the Guangdong Intellectual Property Office, Ma Xianmin, said, "In the next phase, both Guangdong and Hong Kong will ride on the trends of development and enhance collaboration with the focus on promoting 'co-operation on IP trading and services', to strengthen the protection of IP, continuously consolidate the achievements of co-operation, scale up and broaden the area of co-operation, generate a ripple effect and devotedly promote the IP co-operation of the two places to the new stage."
The Expert Group was set up after the Sixth Plenary of the Guangdong/Hong Kong Co-operation Joint Conference in August 2003. It aims at enhancing exchanges and co-operation on various aspects of IP protection, including promotion and education, training, enforcement, research study and information dissemination.
The Guangdong delegation was led by the Director-General of the Guangdong Intellectual Property Office and comprised officials from the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department; the Department of Commerce of Guangdong Province; the Guangdong Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce; the Copyright Bureau of Guangdong Province; the Guangdong Sub-Administration of China Customs as well as the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the People's Government of Guangdong Province. The Hong Kong delegation was headed by the Director of Intellectual Property and comprised officials from the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau and the Customs and Excise Department.
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