Four-year EU program boosts IPR enforcement

BEIJING - The nearly 13,000 filings received from China by the European Patent Office (EPO) last year was an increase of 54 percent over 2009 and an "astounding" 96 percent surge over 2008, according to EPO Vice-President Raimund Lutz.

Lutz attributed the growth to increased cooperation between China and the European Union, and the national intellectual property (IP) strategy unveiled in 2008 that shows the Chinese government's "reinforced effort to shift the trade from products made in China to technologies developed in China".

His remarks came at a ceremony on July 15 summarizing a long-standing EU-China partnership to better enforce intellectual property rights.