Raising awareness

In a bid to raise awareness about intellectual property rights in Mainland China, the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) is hosting a seminar on July 20 for local small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The event will combine the forces of IPIM, the Macao Economic Services (DSE) and the Macau Lawyers Association (AAM) in order to educate local SME’s interested in entering the Mainland Chinese market on how to protect their intellectual property rights.
One of the aims of the seminar is also to help trade associations and other business offices in Macau to increase their knowledge in order to better protect their intellectual property.
The event will see the presence of representatives from China Patent Agent (H.K.) Ltd., Clt Patent & Trademark (H.K.) Ltd., and copyright law experts, who will debate issues of copyright registration and how to prevent infringements.
According to the DSE, in the first six months of 2016 a total of 5,599 new brands and 24 patents were registered in the MSAR, a year-on-year decrease of 4.7 per cent and 35.2 per cent respectively.
An American Chamber of Commerce in China report on the country’s business climate in 2016 stated that although the effectiveness of Intellectual Property Rights in China was ranked as low by member companies, enforcement has improved in the last five years.