National Roving Seminar on PCT Held in Xi'an

WIPO National Roving Seminar on PCT held in Xi'an

News from Shaanxi Sub-website: On March 22 the WIPO National Roving Seminar on Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) officially opened in Xi'an under joint sponsorship of China's State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) and the WIPO. Deputy Commissioner He Hua of SIPO and Vice Governor Zhu Jingzhi of Shaanxi Provincial People's Government were invited to the seminar and offered greetings at its opening ceremony.

Present at the seminar are more than 150 participants who are experts from WIPO and SIPO, patent agents and workers from the northwest region, enterprises, schools of higher learning as well as scientific and technological research institutes.

The PCT signed on June 19, 1970 is another international treaty of vital importance in the field of patent intellectual property following the conclusion of the Paris Treaty in 1883, which is regarded as a sign of progress with great significance to the cooperation in the field. The volumes of PCT applications accepted and possessed represent an important mark to measure the capacity of innovation and competition of a country and a region, for the quantity of PCT applications can, to some extent, reflect the quality of their economic operations and international competitiveness.

In his speech Deputy Commissioner He Hua pointed out, PCT as a much matured international system that has undergone 30 years of development is an effective means that cannot be neglected in Chinese enterprises' participation in international competition. In face of worldwide economic globalization and as a developing country, China is encountering with important subjects for study such as how to make full use of this international system to explore for greater development of its enterprises, especially those of small and medium sizes, on international markets.

It is, therefore, very important to enable the public, particularly practitioners in the IP field, to understand the PCT system and to be good at using the system. Launching seminars jointly with WIPO is a very effective channel to propagate, generalize and use the PCT system among the public broad masses.

SIPO Deputy Commissioner He Hua is the first to report at the seminar

Shaanxi Province Vice Governor Zhu Jingzhi extending greetings at the opening ceremony

Vice Governor Zhu Jingzhi expressed her view that Shaanxi as a leading province in west development had reported rapid development in its intellectual property activity over the past few years. However, it is clearly understood that the volume of PCT patents in the province's possession is far from enough to meet the needs of its economic, scientific and technological as well as social development.

At present, Shaanxi is busy investigating and studying to formulate relevant measures and, while further increasing the quantity of domestic patents, is working still harder with greater energy to enlarge the volume of PCT patents so as to support and guarantee more technologies, products and good brands to turn out from Shaanxi for a larger share of international market.

The current seminar is scheduled to last four days, during which experts from WIPO and SIPO will explain such issues as the general situation of PCT, its application procedure and system development as well as global PCT strategy. In the meantime, they will go deep into enterprises to know about the actual demand of applicants and give them on-spot guidance as how to do well with PCT application.

2007-04-05