By Yan Pei

In an effort to promote intellectual property (IP) protection and facilitate the search for IP law information, a new legal platform for IP was inaugurated in Beijing on July 9.

"China IP Law Search" is a free search tool designed to help users find and access legal resources on the current legislative framework of IP protection and enforcement.

It enables users to search legal texts in key areas of IP including Patent Law, Trademark Law, Copyright Law, customs protection, dissemination of information on the internet, new plant varieties and unfair competition.

China IP Law Search is an initiative of the EU-China IPR2 Project, a partnership started in 2007 between the European Union and China on the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR). With more than 16 million Euros in joint funding over four years to 2011, IPR2 aims to strengthen the enforcement of IPR by targeting the reliability, efficiency and accessibility of the IP protection system in China.

China IP Law Search is an example of the close co-operation between China and European in IP protection, said Wang Yang, a deputy director from the Ministry of Commerce noted, adding that the platform "is part of an objective by the Ministry of Commerce to provide widespread public access to IP-related information both in English and Chinese."

Rudie Filon, the first Secretary of the EC Delegation to China, said that he expected more and more people from Europe would use the platform in the future. A similar bilingual platform for European IP-related laws would follow in the foreseeable future, he added.

(China.org.cn by Yan Pei, July 10, 2009)