On May 3rd, distinguished guests visited Shanghai International College of Intellectual Property (SICIP) in Tongji University, including Chen Qun, the Vice Mayor of Shanghai municipal government, Zong Ming, the Vice Secretary-General of Shanghai municipal government, and Rui Wenbiao, the Deputy Director-General of Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration. The guests were received by CPC Party Committee Secretary Fang Shou’en of Tongji University, President Zhong Zhihua, Vice President Jiang Bo, and Vice President Lei Xinghui of Tongji University, and Professor Shan Xiaoguang, Dean of SICIP in Tongji University, and then a survey symposium was held in SICIP.

In the symposium, President Zhong Zhihua welcomed the distinguished visitors and introduced the achievements of Tongji University in talents education, academic disciplines construction and commercialization of research findings, as well as the challenges the university is faced up with during its development.

Professor Shan Xiaoguang elaborated on the background and current development of SICIP. Vice President Lei Xinghui introduced the path of progress of the intellectual property discipline in Tongji University, and Vice President Jiang Bo gave an account of the international exchange of SICIP.

Party Secretary Fang Shou’en expressed that, Tongji University has been active in echoing the national strategy of “innovation-driven development”, “Belt & Road Initiative”, and Shanghai’s strategy of “building a science & Technology Innovation Center with global influence”. Therefore, Tongji has seized opportunities to take the advantage of its multi-disciplinary academic resources as well as its feature of international perspective, so as to strengthen the promotion of intellectual property discipline, improve the level of cultivation for international high-end intellectual property talents, and comprehensively support the development of Shanghai Free Trade Pilot Zone as well as Shanghai’s “Four Brands” urban planning.

Deputy Director-General Rui Wenbiao noted that, the accomplishments of SICIP in one year since its establishment has been widely observed and accepted, Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration will continue to support the construction of SICIP in Tongji University, and devote greater efforts to offer its support in respect of talents training, strategy research, transfer and management of intellectual property, etc.

Vice Secretary-General Zong Ming stated that SICIP has gained a favorable and high quality starting point. She hoped that in its future development, SICIP will further intensify its cooperation with international organizations, world famous research institutions as well as practical agencies, and actively explore the option of developing international education programs and mechanisms by a college in a university, so that it can make SICIP “fruitful, strong, and excellent” under supports from the government, the university, the enterprises, and all other sources from the society.

Vice Mayor Chen Qun positively affirmed the achievements of Tongji University in intellectual property discipline and made in-depth discussion with participants of the symposium about the pattern and path of cultivating intellectual property talents. He emphasized that, as an important measure of China’s opening strategy, intellectual property work plays an important role in Shanghai’s strategy of building “a science & Technology Innovation Center with global influence” as well as “a city as center of intellectual property in Asia-Pacific Region”. Hoping that SICIP will make positive exploration in the fields of talents education, academic discipline construction, international cooperation, etc., he promised that the municipal government will coordinate between resources from all aspects and actively promote the building and development of SICIP.  

Before the symposium, the group of distinguished guests led by Vice Mayor Chen also inspected in person the current overall status and outcomes of SICIP.

Tongji University is among the few universities which earliest conducted intellectual property talents education and academic disciplinary construction in China and has been pioneering in the field of internationalization of intellectual property. In November 17th, 2016, under the supports from World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) and Shanghai Municipal Government, SICIP was established in Tongji University. In September 2017, SICIP launched its first opening ceremony for its degree programs, with 91 international students from 21 countries. Presently, SICIP is operating two important degree programs, including the WIPO-Tongji Program of Master in IP Law (Specialized in Design), the Chinese GovernmentBelt & Road Scholarship Program of Master in IP (jointly entrusted by Ministry of Education and SIPO). Besides, SICIP has established close cooperative relations with world famous research institutions such as Max Plank Institute, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), University of Florence. SICIP is devoted to cultivating high level, inter-disciplinary and international intellectual property talents, and providing “China’s wisdom” and “China’s solution” for the transformation in international intellectual property legal system in the context of new technology revolution.