BEIJING — State Councilor Wang Yong met with the European Patent Office (EPO) President Benoit Battistelli on Nov 26, pledging to strengthen intellectual property cooperation.

Wang said the Chinese government attaches great importance to intellectual property and will deepen intellectual property protection and reform.

The two sides express their willingness to advance communication and cooperation to provide more efficient services for mass entrepreneurship and innovation.

China and Europe established cooperation in intellectual property in 1985 by signing the first agreement. In 2007, China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) and EPO stepped into strategic partnership, which upgraded their cooperation from a purely technical to a strategic level.