-- An Interview with Jiang Ying, Director of State Intellectual Property Rights Bureau

-- By People's Daily Staff Reporter Jiang Jianke

November 15 saw the signing of a bilateral agreement by Chinese and US negotiating teams on behalf of their governments on China's access to the WTO. Worldwide repercussions have been felt because of this accord. Intellectual property rights had been an essential part to negotiations by the two parties of China and the US. In view of this, the reporter made a call on Jiang Ying, director of State Intellectual Property Rights Bureau.

Jiang said that WTO accords include intellectual property rights-trade related agreements, goods trade multilateral agreements and service trade conventions. And that when signed they should be of compelling binding force on all signatories with their signatures applied. China's entry will mean that the country will have to honor all its rights and obligations with regard to intellectual property rights protection. A fact to be noted is that this will be of profound significance to advancing and strengthening China's intellectual property rights protection.

Such an influence will be seen primarily in the rights and obligations as have been written in intellectual property rights-trade related agreements. First, we must make further efforts to improve our intellectual property rights related laws according to the demand of agreements signed. Take patent right law for example, after amendments made in 1992, we have by its protection scope and protection basically met the demand of the agreements signed. Second, when disputes should arise over intellectual property rights we can appeal to relevant articles of WTO accords or authoritative intermediary bodies for arbitration. This will on the one hand help us ease or restrain wanton unilateral reprisals by a few developed countries against us in trade. With the backing of related WTO agreements signed, we can likewise conduct multilateral negotiations when disputes arise over intellectual property rights protection. On the other hand, greater demands have been raised for intellectual property rights protection in China. If we fail in providing effective protection for other signatories' intellectual property rights, we will then be stopped from enjoying possible preferential treatment to face cross trans-department reprisals. Our practices from the work of intellectual property rights protection show that strengthened intellectual property rights protection, especially an effective powerful crackdown and sanctions on shoddy counterfeit imitations will be the obligations we must attend to after our entry into the WTO. It goes without saying it constitutes all the more the necessity for us to develop a fine socialist market economy in China. Third, by joining the WTO will be meant an urgent heavy task facing us is that we must speedily raise the ability of our enterprises and related departments to make good use of intellectual property rights protection. After joining the WTO we have to implement in an all-round way various necessary obligations stipulated, especially a cut of our Customs duty and a further opening of domestic markets as demanded by the WTO. Our enterprises will have to join in international competitions on a scale of unprecedented magnitude. Facing this situation, our enterprises must fight for survival and development They must see to it that renovations and new advances are made, old technologies updated and new ones developed. With a market economy developed, they must rely on and use all the more intellectual property rights protection to have new incentive mechanisms created and greater guarantees sought. If our enterprises can have a good command and are in a position to make most of intellectual property rights to take part in market competition they will win greater initiative. Contrarily, they will squander in difficulties to have an increased technological gap found between them and their foreign counterparts in developed countries. To be in brief, working for a speedy great raise of the level and abilities of our enterprises and related departments to make most of intellectual property rights has come to be a great urgent task put on agenda of our work in China today. "This is what I mean by my "we must make most of this double-blade sword'", said Director Jiang.