U.S. Announces Outcome on IPR Requests to China

On April 11, 2006, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, United States Trade Ambassador Rob Portman and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns met with Vice Premier Wu Yi for the 17th annual senior-level meeting of the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT). Thanks to the IPCentral Weblog for pointing to the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) announcement entitled "Outcomes on U.S. Requests" for April 11, 2006:

In support of its commitment to significantly reduce intellectual property rights (IPR) infringement levels, China agreed to the following specific actions.

• Pirated Optical Disks (ODs). The Chinese government has taken action against 14 factories producing illegal optical disks and has pledged to step up enforcement in this important area to combat copyright piracy of films, music, and software. China and the U.S. will also explore new ways to strengthen cooperation in this area.
• Requirements to Install Legitimate Software. The Chinese government has issued a notice requiring the pre-loading of legal operating system software on all computers produced or imported into China , as well as a notice requiring government agencies to purchase computers with pre-loaded software. In line with these requirements, several Chinese computer manufacturers have recently signed agreements to purchase U.S. operating system software.
• Ensuring Use of Legal Software in Government and Enterprises. In addition to ongoing efforts to ensure use of legalized software at all levels of the government, China has launched efforts to ensure the legalization of software used in Chinese enterprises. In addition, China has agreed to discuss U.S. proposals regarding government and enterprise software asset management in the JCCT IPR Working Group.
• Rid Consumer Markets of Infringing Goods. The Chinese government has agreed to intensify its efforts to ensure that public markets in China are free of infringing products and has announced enforcement actions in several major cities.
• Individual Cases. The Chinese government agreed to help ensure that individual IPR cases raised by the U.S. government with China will be vigorously pursued.
• Action Plan: China has announced a broad action plan to improve enforcement of IP rights, including steps in the areas of enforcement, legislation and education. Strongly implemented, these steps could lead to significant improvement in the IP situation in China.

The plenary session of the 17th U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) was held in Washington, DC on April 11, 2006. Established in 1983, the JCCT is an annual government-to-government platform designed to develop and facilitate the U.S.-China commercial relationship. The U.S. uses the JCCT as a forum to identify and resolve problems and to expand trade opportunities.

According to the Chinese State News Agency's report on the "China Achievements Exhibition for Intellectual Property Protection," running through April 25 at the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution in Beijing, China's "achievements in protecting IPR are obvious."