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A seminar on the protection of intellectual property in Mainland and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) will be held in Shenzhen on September 2 for Hong Kong's small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The one-day seminar is organised by the Intellectual Property Department (IPD) of the HKSAR Government, in collaboration with Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Guangdong Provincial Intellectual Property Office, and Shenzhen Municipal Intellectual Property Office.
A spokesman of the IPD said that one of the aims of the seminar was to strengthen co-operation between Guangdong and Hong Kong on intellectual property matters.
"During the Sixth Plenary of the Hong Kong/Guangdong Co-operation Joint Conference held in Hong Kong on August 5, both sides agreed to enhance cooperation on protection of intellectual property and to set up an expert group to follow up the implementation details.
"This seminar is the first important cooperation programme on promoting intellectual property protection between Hong Kong and Guangdong following the successful conclusion of the Joint Conference."
"With the building of closer economic tie between Hong Kong and Guangdong, more and more SMEs would need to know better the intellectual property systems on both sides in order to avoid breaching the relevant rules and regulations as well as to appreciate and seize any business opportunities that are linked with intellectual property.
"We hope that apart from gaining a broader and deeper understanding of various intellectual property protection issues in Hong Kong and Guangdong, the participants can also learn from and draw on the success experience of the speakers in managing and developing their own business," the spokesman said.
The morning session of the seminar will focus on intellectual property protection system in the Mainland and HKSAR including the legal and policy framework, and on the licensing business for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
Speakers will include Mr Qiao Dexi, Director General of International Cooperation Department, State Intellectual Property Office, and other government officials from Guangdong Province, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Officials from the Beijing Organising Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad will explain the business opportunities brought about by the Olympic Games.
The two series of concurrent sessions in the afternoon will showcase various success stories of enterprises in exploiting and managing their intellectual assets. Broadly, the two series are divided into products and service industries such as kitchen ware manufacturing, traditional Chinese medicines, biotechnology, software development and etc.
Attendance at the seminar is free. All SME executives are welcome. Please visit the website of IPD at www.info.gov.hk/ipd or call the telephone enquiry number 2961 5630 for details.
End/Monday, August 25, 2003
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