The Intellectual Property Law Alliance of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area

Background

In 2008, the State Council of the People’Republic of China issued the Outline of the National Intellectual Property Strategy. This outline is formulated for the purpose of implementing the national intellectual property strategy and identifies five strategic focuses: improving the intellectual property regime, promoting the creation and utilization of intellectual property, strengthening the protection of Intellectual property rights(IPRs), preventing abuses of IPRs and fostering a culture of IPRs. This strategy has achieved remarkable results after having being implemented ten years and provided strong support for the effort to make China an innovative country.

The development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (the Greater Bay Area) is a key national strategy personally devised, personally planned and personally driven by President Xi Jinping. It is not only a new attempt to break new ground in pursuing opening up on all fronts in a new era, but also a further step in taking forward the practice of “one country, two systems”. The Greater Bay Area strategy urges to actively attract and connect global innovation resources to develop the “Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hongkong-Macao” innovation and technology corridor and jointly build a Greater Bay Area platforms for international innovation. It will facilitate the building of a new system of open economy in line with international standards; and the development of a new platform for high-level international cooperation. It will also facilitate the development of an important support area for the convergence of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

Opportunity

Macau University of Science and Technology (M.U.S.T.) and Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (ZUEL) took the opportunity of national strategy and jointly set up the Macau Intellectual Property Research Centre, the partner research base of Center for Studies of Intellectual Property Rights of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (the key research base of Humanity and Social Science by the Ministry of Education). The centre was established in M.U.S.T in 2017 with the approval of the Ministry of Education of People’s Republic of China, and Mr. Chen Baosheng, the then Minister of Education, personally inaugurated the Center in Macao on April 16, 2018. Taking root in Macao and working together with the China’s mainland, the Center’s will also connect China and Portugal and face to the world. It aims to optimize resources and make full use of its location advantage as a place where the Eastern and Western cultures blended together and coexist, as the service platform for business and trade between Chinese and Portuguese-speaking countries, and the crucial hub of the Belt and Road, and then build the Center into an influential academic institution and think tank on both sides of Taiwan Strait, in Hong Kong and Macao, Portuguese-speaking countries or even in the world.

Initiative

Initiated by the Faculty of Law/Macau Intellectual Property Research Center of M.U.S.T. and co-founded by the Law School/Intellectual Property School of Jinan University and Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong, the Intellectual Property Law Alliance of Guangdong- Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (IPLAG) aims to unite the forces of law schools of universities in the Greater Bay Area, research centers, law offices and social groups, jointly study the intellectual property protection and share high-quality experience and resources, construct an intellectual property research base and think tank in the Greater Bay Area, move forward intellectual property cooperation regime, and promote the standards of intellectual property legal services. As a non-profit academic organization, the IPLAG will be operated in accordance with the IPLAG charters.

The Initiative received active responses from organizations in the Greater Bay Area, including law schools at universities, legal services agencies, and other relevant units. There have been first 26 member units so far.

Preparation

On November 6, 2018, representatives from the Faculty of Law/ Macau Intellectual Property Research Center of M.U.S.T., the Law School/Intellectual Property School of Jinan University and Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong held “the Preparatory Meeting” in the M.U.S.T.. Prof. Fang Quan, Executive Vice Dean of the Faculty of Law of M.U.S.T., Mr. Cao Xinmin, the director of the Center for Studies of Intellectual Property Rights of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Prof. Fu Hualing, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong and Prof. Jia Xuesheng, representative of Intellectual Property School of Jinan University jointly presented the meeting. On the meeting, representatives briefed the preparation work of the inaugural meeting and discussed the draft charter of the IPLAG, the agenda of the first meeting of the executive committee of IPLAG, inauguration ceremony and agenda of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Intellectual Property Law Summit. On the same day, the three sponsor units held a press briefing for the founding of IPLAG in the M.U.S.T..

The Founding of IPLAG

Organized by Macau University of Science and Technology, the Inauguration Ceremony for the Intellectual Property Law Alliance of Guangdong- Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area & the Intellectual Property Law Summit of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area was held in Zhuhai on December 4, 2018. Officiating guests who attended the Inauguration Ceremony include Mr. Wang Heng, Deputy Director of the Department of Legal Affairs of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao S.A.R., Mr. Ma Xianmin, President of Guangdong Intellectual Property Protection Association, Mr. Lau Wai Meng, Deputy Director of the Economic Bureau of the Macao S.A.R., Chair Prof. Liu Liang, President of M.U.S.T., Mr. Jiang Bin, Vice President of Guangdong Province Law Society, Prof. Fang Quan, representative of Faculty of Law and Macao Intellectual Property Research Center of M.U.S.T., Prof. Wu Handong, Chairman of the Academic Committee of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Prof. Guo Zongjie, representative of Law School & Intellectual Property School of Jinan University, and Associate Prof. Sun Haochen, representative of Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong. The Ceremony was also attended and witnessed by representatives of the first 26 members of the Alliance and about 100 participants of the Summit.