Intellectual property officials from China, Japan and the Republic of Korea held the third trilateral policy meeting in Beijing yesterday to discuss new co-operation and the possibility of arranging talks with Southeast Asian countries.

Wang Jingchuan, commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office of China, said trilateral co-operation has been greatly promoted in the past three years.

During the 10 plus 3 meeting -- involving the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus Japan, the Republic of Korea and China -- in Indonesia in early October, leaders from the three sides agreed to strengthen intellectual property protection and co-ordination, said Wang.

The three countries play vital roles in, among other Asian concerns, intellectual property issues, said Yasuo Imai, commissioner of Japan's Patent Office. The three sides have conducted many joint economic and technological projects, he added.

Ha Dong-man, commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office, said high-level dialogue among the three countries on intellectual property is particularly important.

"I wish the three sides would discuss more substantial issues of intellectual property protection in the future,'' he said.

The three sides have agreed to set up an information-exchange system to experiment with electronic document exchange by 2004.

They also want to explore the possibility of sharing patent search and examination databases.

The three sides have also agreed to jointly compile a technical dictionary related to intellectual property.

The trilateral policy dialogue was initiated in 2001. Japan's Patent Office hosted the first meeting in Tokyo and the three sides agreed to hold the meeting in turn since then.

(China Daily November 15, 2003)