2-3 July 2014 the annual meeting of the Russian-Chinese working group on cooperation in the field of protection of intellectual property rights was held. The meeting was held for the seventh time within the work of the Sub-Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Intergovernmental Commission for the preparation of regular meetings between the governments of Russia and China. 

The Russian delegation was headed by Zaurbek Albegonov, the chief of the International Cooperation Department of the Federal service for intellectual property (Rospatent). Chinese delegation was headed by Guohua Yang, the deputy director of the Department of law and treaties of the Ministry of commerce. During the meeting, the sides exchanged information on recent developments in law and practice, and shared experiences in dealing with violations of intellectual property rights (counterfeiting and piracy), and discussed the possibility of cooperation between the competent authorities of Russia and China in the field of patents, trademarks and copyright right.

The Head of the working group Zaurbek Albegonov noticed that in recent years, Russia and China are on the path of building a comprehensive long-term strategic partnership of cooperation, thereby mutual trade greatly increased, and the task of the working group is to make the share of legal goods in trade relations between the two countries grow. According to him, Russia and China have many common problems, and working group meetings for the exchange of relevant information in real time provide an excellent opportunity to find common and most effective ways to address them.

International Business and Law Institute (IBLI) of the ITMO University as a reference organization of the Rospatent acted as one of the organizers of the meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission. On the Russian side the meeting was attended by Elena Bogdanova, the director of the IBLI and Angelica Vetrova, the director of the Center for development institute of intellectual property of the ITMO University. The second day of the meeting was held in the University building on the Birzhevaya line. Upon completion of the work program, the Chinese delegation was invited to tour the Museum of Optics at the ITMO University.

As part of its activity institute carries out a wide range of events in the field of intellectual property: provides advice to individuals and legal entities on the registration, evaluation, protection and enforcement of trademarks, makes the policy in the field of intellectual property. Advisory council works at the ITMO University on intellectual property issues, a number of activities is held, range of projects is implemented: Days of intellectual property, city competition on intellectual property for individuals and legal entities, the competition "School Patent - Step into the Future", and others. The IBLI conducts educational program for patenting, seminars, workshops and business games; also the Summer School of the World Intellectual Property Organization based at the ITMO University is regularly held.

Elena Bogdanova, the director of the IBLI convinced that Russian-Chinese cooperation in this area has great prospects: "The next step for the ITMO University should be the organization of specific activities, exchange programs, training and internships for students and teachers, whose interests lie in the field of intellectual property protection".

According to Guohua Yang, a high degree of intellectual property protection should encourage creative activity that contributes to progress and innovation: "In front of the rapidly developing countries of the BRICS group, and Russia and China in particular, thee are the global challenges in the field of intellectual property protection against Internet piracy, and the main point of the work in this direction is to increase the level of culture and education of the people".

Zaurbek Albegonov, the head of the Russian delegation thanked the ITMO University for assistance in organizing this event, as well as for assistance in the conducting summer schools and workshops to popularize the fight against copyright infringement among youth. Rospatent representatives expressed the hope that the productive cooperation with the ITMO University will only be strengthened in the future.