国际保护知识产权协会会长：中国知识产权发展令人印象深刻

　　“就像中国的经济发展速度一样，中国知识产权事业30多年来取得的成就令人印象深刻！”日前，国际保护知识产权协会会长勒娜·里盖蒂·佩洛西在接受中国知识产权报记者采访时表示。

　　在佩洛西看来，中国知识产权事业之所以取得突飞猛进的发展，一是得益于中国经济主体与世界经济主体的需求越来越趋于一致，双方在知识产权保护方面有更多的共识；二是中国培养了很多具有全球视野的知识产权人才，他们为知识产权事业发展做出了很大贡献。

　　佩洛西认为，目前，中国正从“中国制造”向“中国创造”转变，并在多个城市建设全球科技创新中心，知识产权在其中发挥着重要作用。“要想成为世界科技创新中心，中国企业需要将其注意力转向投资于能够产生创新科技的基础研究。随着企业从创新中获利日益提升，他们发现需要保护自身的发明创造免于他人的掠夺。中国的科技巨头企业现在不仅注重在国内加强知识产权保护，还在全球范围内不断加强知识产权布局。”佩洛西表示。

　　“中国在知识产权保护方面虽然取得了一定成效，但仍面临诸多挑战。比如，在商标方面，有些企业为了赢得市场，不惜采取傍名牌、大量囤积商标等行为。”佩洛西说，“为解决这些问题，我们可以看到，中国政府采取了诸多措施，比如，2019年11月，中国新修改的商标法实施，引入了惩罚性赔偿制度，大幅提高侵权法定赔偿额上限。法定赔偿与侵权惩罚性赔偿制度可有效震慑知识产权侵权、违法行为，我们对中国政府采取的做法表示欢迎。”佩洛西表示，除了上述做法外，中国还应进一步普及知识产权教育，提高社会公众知识产权保护意识，对于侵权行为要“人人喊打”。

　　在佩洛西看来，欧盟与中国法律体系之间存在的差异,也使中国在满足欧洲知识产权权利人的需求方面面临许多挑战。“但是，我看到了中国政府加强知识产权保护的信心和决心。中国在立法上做出不懈努力，正出台一系列新的、更为严厉的法律法规。我们有理由相信，在不远的将来，中国在知识产权保护方面存在的不足之处一定会得到妥善地解决。”佩洛西表示。（柳鹏|中国知识产权报）

"The development of intellectual property in China over the past 30 years is as impressive as the country's economic growth," said Renata Righetti Pelosi, President of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI), in an interview with China Intellectual Property News recently.

In her eyes, the reason for the development is twofold. On the one hand, the needs of local economic operators have increasingly overlapped with those from abroad and the mutual knowledge and understanding has increased drastically. On the other hand, China has many talented IP attorneys, with a truly global vision, that are leading the rapid growth of this sector.

In her mind, IP has played a vital role in China's transforming from a manufacturing-based economic system to an economy based on innovation in science and technology and its establishing global scientific and innovation centers in many cities. “The effort to become the world's major scientific and innovation centre requires a shift of companies' attention towards investments in basic research that can deliver innovative science and technology. As Chinese companies begin to innovate at more and more profitable levels, they find themselves needing to protect their own inventions against the predations of others. So the tech giants value IP protection at home and abroad now," Pelosi said.

"Despite the efforts and significant progress, we still face very problematic cases in China today. As far as trademarks are concerned, we still see cases in which very famous trademarks are filed by individuals whose sole purpose is to gain an undue advantage," Pelosi said. In a bid to solve these problems, China has taken series of measures to strengthen IP protection, such as the new amendments to the Chinese Trademark Law enacted on November 1, 2019 suggest to establish a system of punitive damages for willful infringement and largely increase the maximum amount of statutory damages. "To the extent, the statutory damages and punitive damages are effective in deterring illegal conducts and IP rights infringement," Pelosi said, adding that education should be on the agenda of all institutions dealing with IP.

In Pelosi's opinion, differences between the European Union and China legal ecosystems made it challenging to meet the needs of European IP owners, the relentless work of legislative reform has made the Chinese system very reliable. "China is strongly committed to the introduction of new and increasingly stringent rules. On this front, therefore, it is reasonable to expect that any shortcoming, if any, will be resolved in a not too distant future," Pelosi concluded.  (Liu Peng｜China  Intellectual Property News)