1 Beijing

Top officials forge ties with ROK

The 19th meeting between top intellectual property officials from China and South Korea was held last week. The two sides negotiated an extension of the patent examination highway project and signed an agreement to cooperate, marking a milestone in the history of the bilateral partnership, said Tian Lipu, head of the national IP office. He also said that the announcement made during South Korean President Park Geun-hye's visit to China in June will promote IP cooperation between the two countries.

Gov.cn

Academy to auction patents

Some 280 patents will be up for auction next Thursday, including nearly 90 without a reserve price. These patents will include such technologies as image processing, biometrics identification, human-computer interaction, intelligent robotics, network security and management, according to the Institute of Automation in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the owner of the patents. Companies as well as individuals are permitted to bid at the auction.

NANFANG METROPOLIS DAILY

2 Gansu

Museum guards protective tech

The Gansu Provincial Museum was recently granted invention patents for two technologies it had developed to preserve paper. It was the first time the museum has won patents related to relic protection. The technologies can prevent paper from turning moldy or fragile without causing air pollution because the polymer composites they use contain no toxic ingredient and have no color or smell. Researchers said the technologies will be very helpful in the repairing and displaying of paper relics.

Gansudaily.com.cn

3 Shanghai

FTZ aims for global compliance

A unified platform that integrates the management and enforcement of trademarks, patents and copyrights will be established at the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, said Lyu Guoqiang, director of the city's intellectual property administration, recently. He also said a diversified mechanism to deal with IP disputes will be formed in the zone. Currently, there are two IP legal systems coexisting in the zone - the international conventions that China has joined and the existing Chinese IP laws and regulations.

XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

4 Zhejiang

Publishers talk Delta cooperation

A conference about press and copyright cooperation in the Yangtze River Delta was recently held in Shaoxing city. Officials from Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces and Shanghai city agreed to enhance their partnership by co-hosting exhibitions of publications by local companies and organizing campaigns to encourage people to read genuine publications. They also decided to sponsor more libraries in the countryside.

Shanghai.gov.cn

5 Guangdong

Handling furniture disputes

China's first IP protection center in the furniture industry will be located in Houjie county in Dongguan city. According to the local government, the center will start operations next April. It is meant to reduce the amount of time it takes to resolve IP disputes while providing related consulting services. The local government will invest 1 million yuan ($164,700) annually to maintain the center.

NANFANG DAILY

(China Daily 12/18/2013 page17)