On May 29, the International Judicial Symposium on Intellectual Property, co-hosted by the Supreme People's Court (SPC) of China and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), opened in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province. Vice-President of China's SPC Tao Kaiyuan and Assistant Director General of the WIPO Marco M. Alemán attended and addressed the opening ceremony.

In her address, Tao acknowledged the deepened practical cooperation between Chinese courts and the WIPO, which has yielded positive results. This symposium is another important outcome of the cooperation between the two sides in the field of international intellectual property judicial protection, she noted. Participants will discuss frontier IP-related issues such as big data, artificial intelligence, trade secrets, and specialized courts, which will undoubtedly have a significant and far-reaching impact on the development of IP judiciary, she said.

She introduced Chinese courts' efforts in recent years on improving the IP judicial protection mechanism. They have striven to protect the legitimate rights and interests of both Chinese and foreign rights holders on an equal footing, handle foreign-related IP cases fairly in accordance with the law, and build a business environment that is market-oriented, law-based and internationalized, according to Tao. Looking ahead, Chinese courts are willing to work with the WIPO and their counterparts from all over the world to actively participate in global IP governance under the WIPO framework, further strengthen exchanges and cooperation, and contribute Chinese wisdom to the healthy development of IP protection, she said.

In his speech, Alemán lauded Chinese courts’ experience in serving innovation and development, which is worthy of sharing and learning. He said that the symposium, with focus on key issues in the IP field, will provide more effective solutions for the development of IP judicial systems in various countries.

Representatives from the WIPO, the Unified Patent Court of Europe, judges and law enforcement officials, as well as scholars from Singapore, the UK, South Korea, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, the US, and China, and diplomatic envoys in China, attended the event.