SIPA Director General Rui Wenbiao (L) and SUIBE President Wang Rongming launch the Shanghai Joint Research Institute of Intellectual Property. [Photo/WeChat account: Shanghai _IPA]

The Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration, or SIPA and Shanghai University of International Business and Economics – SUIBE – signed a strategic cooperation agreement on March 22 to establish a joint research body for intellectual property, or IP development.

The signing ceremony and unveiling of the Shanghai Joint Research Institute of Intellectual Property was held at SUIBE's Gubei Campus.

Rui Wenbiao, director general of SIPA and Wang Rongming, president of SUIBE jointly launched the institute. Yin Yao, secretary of the SUIBE Party committee, presided over the ceremony.

According to Rui Wenbiao, the institute is a pragmatic measure, designed to handle the complex challenges in the international trade and IP field, as well as an innovative move to serve market demand for going global and to support high-level opening-up.

Rui said the institute would pool resources to build a new type of think tank for IP development. Moreover, it would focus on key directions such as international IP rules, overseas IP protection assistance and IP in emerging industries, he added.

Yin Yao said that SIPA's choice to cooperate with his university reflected its scientific research, think tank development and talent cultivation.

Wang Rongming said that as a high-level local university with an open economy group of disciplines as its feature, its responsibilities were transforming innovation into real productivity, promoting high-quality development with innovation and helping Shanghai develop as a strong IP city.

He hoped that by integrating its internal and external advantageous resources, the institute would serve Shanghai's IP cause at a high level.