The 7th Annual Ambassador’s Roundtable Discussion on IPR Held in Beijing

November 24, 2008

The 7th Annual Ambassador’s Roundtable Discussion on IPR was held in Beijing on November 7. Mr. Clark Randt, U.S. Ambassador to China and Mr. Chong Quan, Assistant Minister of Commerce, addressed the opening ceremony, and Ms. Deborah Cohn, Deputy Commissioner for Trademark Operation, U.S Patent and Trademark Office gave a keynote speech. More than 300 people from both China and the U.S. attended the event.

Mr. Randt said intellectual property protection has always been a focus of his work. In 2002 the ambassador held the first IPR Roundtable, bringing together government officials and professionals. The Roundtable has since become an annual event gaining widespread attention.

Topics of the Roundtable this year included: new strategy and law-making in IP protection, including the Outline of the National Intellectual Property Strategy published in June and the Anti-Monopoly Law that went into effect in August; IP protection environment of the software industry, including enterprise’s software purchase and pirate software; IP trends in the pharmaceutical industry, including development of innovative drug manufacturers and fake drugs; an IP challenge in the IT field, such as the implementation and misuse of the Anti-Monopoly Law; status quo of copyright protection, including the impact of music download and academic plagiarism; trademark protection and forgery; innovation and IP policies; and IP enforcement after the Olympics.