UK And China Discuss IP Cooperation

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

18 September 2009

At talks in Beijing earlier this month, representatives from the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China discussed the important role played by joint intellectual property management efforts in the development and production of new low carbon technologies to tackle climate change.

The UK IPO revealed that the creation of a business and university friendly framework that will benefit both the UK and China had been discussed, and in a statement, acknowledged that:

"Although working together and sharing knowledge is an important way of promoting innovation, the management of intellectual property can sometimes be a barrier to this joint work."

"An agreement is therefore needed to help decide where IP rights should lie in joint work between UK and Chinese businesses and research organisations."

Other matters discussed at the meeting included:

• The benefits of establishing a framework for managing IP in UK-China joint research and development;
• The differences between domestic agreements and cross-border agreements, particularly with respect to different legal frameworks; and
• The reasons that establishing a framework for IP management will be particularly important for research and development (R&D) projects on low carbon innovations.

Richard Lambert, Director General of the Confederation of British Industry – which recently urged the UK authorities not to "blink" when it comes to protecting the intellectual property of environmental innovators – observed:

"Some of the best ideas for tackling climate change and other major challenges facing the world today are going to come out of collaborative work between business and universities. Having model IP agreements and guidance available can significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the collaboration process. It has worked well in the UK – now the next step is to share that experience internationally, and what better place to start than with China."

Peter Holland, International Director of the IPO, added: "Evidence suggests that managing and reaching agreement in IP ownership and access is difficult in all industry sectors. This means that collaborative projects can take a long time to set up or simply never happen. The provision of a framework for IP management looks to encourage and support more collaboration. It could also dramatically reduce the transaction costs involved in establishing such agreements and we hope this increases technology diffusion".

Lu Guoliang, Director General of the International Cooperation Department, stressed the importance of establishing an effective system for the creation and transfer of IP, especially in light of the global economic crisis.

The meeting earlier this month followed the UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue in May 2009, at which Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Qishan and UK Chancellor Alistair Darling agreed that the two countries should discuss how to create an international framework for model agreements for use in collaborative R&D projects.

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