A total of 943 Chinese exhibition enterprises signed a manifesto promising to make a joint effort to protect industry copyrights.

 

The Combined Action on Copyright Protection in Exhibition Industry was published by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) at the Second International Cooperation Forum on the Exhibition Industry.

 

All who signed pledged to uproot such activities as the cribbing, counterfeiting, forging and pirating of copyrights for all kinds of exhibitions and fairs.

 

"To enforce copyright protection among exhibition enterprises is necessary to guarantee a sound development of the industry," said Li Ling, director of law and regulation bureau under China's Ministry of Commerce.

 

At the forum, the CCPIT also signed a Sino-US Manifesto on Copyright Protection in the Exhibition Industry with the International Association for Exhibition Management (IAEM).

 

The two sides pledged to elaborate the significance of copyright protection to participants, officials and law enforcement departments of their own countries so as to avoid undermining the reputation of exhibitions.

 

"The manifesto's subscription signified a deeper cooperation in the exhibition industry between China and the United States, and the new substantial step of Chinese exhibition enterprises toward the world," Gao Yan, vice president of the CCPIT, said.

 

The two-day forum was jointly held by the CCPIT, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, IAEM and the Society of Independent Show Organization (SISO), and attended by more than 600 eminent domestic and overseas exhibition organizers who discussed copyright protection and labor resources.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2006)