IPR strategy key to nation's sustainable growth

Since China began to implement its National Intellectual Property Strategy on June 5 last year, the nation has achieved remarkable progress in this field.

Intellectual property rights (IPR) protection is a serious concern for both the central and local governments, as well as for foreign businesses operating in China.

In June 2008, Chinese President Hu Jintao told a political bureau meeting that China would promote independent innovations through strengthening developments in science and education, human resources and intellectual property.

Premier Wen Jiabao, wrote an article for the Qiushi magazine, the primary theoretical journal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, saying that the IPR strategy is important for China's development as a nation's technological and economic competitiveness depends largely on the competitiveness of its own intellectual property.

Tiana Lipu:" China should change its economic growth model and promote its independent IPR-protected innovations."

The State leaders' statements are especially true in the context of an era of knowledge-based economies.

IPR protection involves a legal system that aims to promote the market value of inventions and innovations through offering legal protection for the IPR owners.

Some Western countries, for example, the United Kingdom, began to implement their IPR system 300 years ago. The system has played an important role in the miraculous economic progress of the West in past centuries.

In contrast, the lack of such a mechanism discourages inventions and innovations and is one of the reasons why the Chinese economy has lagged behind Western countries for a long time.

During the past three decades of reform and opening up, China has achieved remarkable developments in the social and economic fields. This is also closely related to the steady progress in the implementation of its IPR system.

It's hard to imagine how China could attract substantial sums of foreign investment and become a member of the World Trade Organization without committing to effectively implementing an IPR system.

More importantly, the improvements in IPR protection have also played a big role in establishing a market economy, strengthening independent innovations and raising the competitiveness of the nation and the core competence of many domestic businesses.