Beijing— A closing ceremony for the EU-China IPR2 cooperation project took place Friday at the EU Delegation to China in Beijing.

The European Union (EU) and the Chinese government launched the project in 2007 with 16.275 million euros in joint funding. It aimed at improving the reliability, efficiency and accessibility of the intellectual property protection system in China. The project was designed to create a sustainable environment for effective IPR (intellectual property rights) enforcement in the country.

Chinese and European officials, law makers, judges and leading academic and industry experts reviewed the last four years of joint work and the lessons learned from this partnership.

“Great progress has been made in the cooperation between China and the EU in the protection of IPR during the last four years. The project has helped increase political trust and boost economic growth on the two sides,” said Zhao Zhongyi, deputy director general of China International Center for Economic & Technical Exchanges under the Ministry of Commerce.

Carmen Cano, the minister counselor of the EU Delegation to China and Mongolia, said, “IPR2 has contributed to strengthening trade and economic ties between the two sides. It has not only helped support a favorable environment for European companies to invest in China, but also for Chinese to invest in Europe by learning to protect their individual businesses.”

The program is a successful example of the cooperation between developed and developing countries in the protection of IPR, Zhao said.

“In building up this strong cooperation model, the European Patent Office fostered the participation of IP authorities in Europe and extended the range of competences and expertise available,” said Raimund Lutz, vice president of the European Patent Office. “The other fundamental element is the commitment of the Chinese government to the protection of IP rights. And the results of this are already visible.”

In 2010, the European Patent Office recorded more than 235,000 patent applications, almost 13,000 of which came from China. That represents an astounding 96 percent increase since 2008, he said.

“This commitment has been evident through the engagement of all IP authorities in the implementation of cooperation programs over the past years and foremost with the IPR2 project,” Lutz said.

At the closing ceremony, EU officials gave Chinese authorities access to 500 materials and information tools developed by experts involved with the project between 2007 and 2011.

Many achievements have been made during the past four years.

The China-EU IPR2 project has established a high-quality database on China-EU IPR laws, which is open to the public in China, Europe and other countries and regions.

“We are working to guarantee that the database can be updated and be used after the closing of the IPR2 project,” Zhao said.

It has contributed to the improvement of the framework of IPR laws in China, said Professor Wu Hanzhong, director to the research basement of national IPR protection.

A series of activities as part of the project has provided a platform for scholars from China and Europe to further exchange ideas and opinions on the protection of IP rights.

The platform of IPR2 also allows people to feel comfortable sharing information so that policy makers in China and Europe can collect first-hand information. This way they can focus more on making policy changes, said Jack Chang, chairman of Quality Brands Protection Committee at China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment (CAEFI).

But “as a developing country, China still has a lot of work to do in the protection of IPR,” Zhao said.