United States Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and director of the united states patent and trademark office Jon Dudas, United States Coordinator For International Intellectual Property Enforcement Chris Israel, distinguished United States government officials from Washington, industry representatives, distinguished experts and guests, and China mission colleagues.

Welcome to the sixth annual Ambassador’s Intellectual Property Rights Roundtable. I am grateful to see so many of you in attendance at today’s event.  I especially appreciate those of you who have traveled a long way to join us here today.

The theme of this year’s roundtable is “IPR protection on the ground – what The United States China Mission is doing to support rights holders in China and what can we be doing better.”  The “China Mission” refers to the United States Embassy here in Beijing and our four constituent consulates in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang and Chengdu.

In this regard, we will explore not only how the mission’s assets can best be utilized to work with rights holders, but also how to prioritize our goals for the years ahead.  I look forward to hearing your frank and practical suggestions as to how we can help you make progress on these important issues.

When I became Ambassador in 2001, it was clear to me that inadequate IPR protection and uneven enforcement of existing intellectual property laws and regulations presented a serious challenge.  Inadequate IPR protection materially and adversely impacts the crucial bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and China.  I believe these roundtable discussions over the last six years have played an important and positive role in making some progress.

We recognize and greatly appreciate the energetic leadership of Vice Premier Wu Yi and welcome the sincere efforts of numerous Chinese agencies and officials on both a national and local level.

Unfortunately, despite these efforts, our companies on the ground here and those based in the United States impacted by IPR infringement tell us that significant IPR problems persist and may, in fact, be getting worse.

Today, we will hear about continuing challenges such as, Internet issues, restrictions on technology transfers, the newly proposed revisions to the patent and trademark laws,
a recently adopted anti-monopoly law, continuing market access restrictions and
new cases that threaten past WTO commitments.

While the stakes have rarely been higher, the limitations and restrictions of what we can do here have also increased due to the United States Government’s filing of an IPR-related case.  As a result, China, in some cases, has curtailed certain forms of cooperation with the United States.

Today, we will hear presentations from united states government and industry representatives about the good work we have all been doing to improve intellectual property rights protection and enforcement in China.

We shall also hear about emerging issues that require our collective attention.  If China is to truly encourage creativity, innovation and entrepeneurship, intellectual property rights protection should be seen as benefiting China, as well as ourselves.

I want to thank you all for your attendance, especially our government experts such as Undersecretary Dudas and Coordinator Israel who have traveled all the way from Washington to participate with us today.

I look forward to the discussions today which will help the China Mission in our continuing efforts to work with you and our Chinese partners to strengthen China’s intellectual property environment for the benefit of all.

Thank you.

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