Philips Electronics China Group signed a memorandum of understanding in Beijing Monday with the People's University of China in the national capital to fund its education and research on intellectual property.

The Netherlands-based electronics giant will fund two European intellectual property experts to teach postgraduates in the People's University of China for two semesters from September this year and will send Chinese experts to European colleges, said Ruud J. Peters, CEO of Intellectual Properties and Standards of Royal Philips Electronics.

Philips will establish a scholarship to fund local research programs on intellectual property as well.

The company is also talking with Qinghua (Tsinghua) University about similar cooperation, including funding a senior research program on intellectual property management, Peters added.

"Education and research will raise the general level of intellectual property knowledge in Chinese society, which is also in our interests," he acknowledged. "China is of vital importance for Philips. We have done more and more research and technology development in China."

The company has 13 research and development centers on the Chinese mainland with more than 700 technicians. Among the 100,000patents it has obtained now, some 200 were developed and patented in China.

Experience and knowledge from a multinational like Philips will be useful for China to improve intellectual property protection and develop a system that fits the country's reality, said Prof. Liu Chuntian, director of the Teaching and Research Center of Intellectual Property attached to the university that first started the research in this field in China.

Philips has set up 35 solely-owned firms and joint ventures in China with a total investment of over 2.6 billion US dollars since its first joint venture was set up in 1985.

Last year, the company reported an operating revenue of 7.5 billion US dollars in China.
 
(Xinhua News Agency April 20, 2004)