Experts laud China's deepening engagement, growing role in global IP governance

China

Experts laud China's deepening engagement, growing role in global IP governance

2024-10-21 12:14 Last Updated At：17:07

China is deeply involved in global intellectual property (IP) governance and playing a growing role in balanced protection and innovative development of global IP rights, according to intellectual property and patent lawyers participating in the 2024 International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI) World Congress.

Themed "balanced protection and innovative development of IP rights", the 2024 AIPPI World Congress is taking place from Saturday to Tuesday in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. This marks China's first hosting of the event, drawing participants from 92 countries and regions.

"There's a huge amount of patent applications in China, very innovative, very tech driven, tech focused, huge market internationally. So, it's already big and is going to get bigger on the international scene," said Hugh Reeves, a Swiss IP lawyer.

Participants believe that an increasing number of countries are emphasizing innovation and IP to propel development and create opportunities. They also noted that China attaches great importance to IP protection and plays a pivotal role with its ideas and solutions in balanced protection of global IP rights.

"I think it's very significant, China is a huge source of intellectual property. Lots of inventions, lots of patents, lots of brands are coming out of China now. In the UK, we have all these companies that are coming from China," said Oliver Pooley, a British patent lawyer.

"China has signed different agreements, worldwide agreements and international treaties in order to protect IP rights, not only the domestic IP rights, but also the foreigners' IP rights. They have strengthened the law, regarding infringement in patents and in trademarks too. The legal environment in China is very updated now," said Juan Carlos Cuesta, a Colombian patent lawyer.

Co-organized by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the AIPPI, the event will center on deliberating draft resolutions on various IP topics. These resolutions, after extensive discussion and voting, will emerge as the key outcomes of the event, propelling the advancement of the global IP governance system.

China further cuts benchmark lending rate LPR

2024-10-21 16:31 Last Updated At：17:07

The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the country's central bank, on Monday announced to cut the market-based benchmark lending rate, with both the one-year loan prime rate (LPR) and the over-five-year LPR being lowered.

The one-year LPR came in at 3.1 percent on Monday, while the over-five-year LPR, on which many lenders base their mortgage rates, fell to 3.6 percent, with both reduced by 0.25 percentage points from the previous reading, according to the National Interbank Funding Center.

The monthly-released data is a pricing reference rate for banks and is based on rates of the People's Bank of China (PBOC)'s open market operations.

"This is the third cut in LPR so far this year, and it's the largest one. The decline in LPR will further push down the loan interest rates of enterprises and individuals, and the interest rates of existing and new mortgage loans will be further reduced, which will better ease the housing consumption burden of residents and promote the stabilization of the real estate market," said Dong Ximiao, chief researcher of Merchants Union Consumer Finance Company Limited.

Experts say that the large cut of 25 basis points in both one-year and over-five-year LPRs will help promote a steady decline in social financing costs, expand gross demand of macro economy, shore up a reasonable recovery in prices, and drive stable growth of the real economy.

"With the introduction of a package of incremental policies, macro policies are working towards stabilizing growth with full force. The reduction in LPR quotes is in line with the current general direction of macro policies. It is a key link in sending the signal of central bank's "aggressive interest rate cuts" to the real economy, and can provide important support for the smooth achievement and completion of the annual economic and social development goals and tasks," said Wang Qing, chief macro analyst of Golden Credit Rating.

In addition, the lowered LPR will significantly ease the burden of mortgage borrowers imposed by interests and effectively stimulate consumption, as residents' mortgage interest expenses have been greatly reduced, according to experts.

Since the beginning of this year, the over-five-year LPR has dropped by 0.6 percentage points in total.