China needs to perfect its intellectual property protection system, said Zhang Qin, deputy director of State Intellectual Property Office.

Zhang made the remarks on Wednesday when attending the High Level Forum on Industrial Property and Development here in Beijing, saying the country's intellectual property system still lagged behind developed countries and needs improvement.

The country also encourage the enterprise to upgrade their innovation level, so that the innovation can be used as an industry standard. " This will increase enterprise profit and contribute to society," he added.

China's intellectual property system began in 1985. Patent application topped four million in the past 20 years and has increased by more than 20 percent annually during the past five years.

Patent application is expected to hit 900,000 this year.

"However, China still lacks legislation experience on intellectual property protection, and enterprises don't have enough consciousness to protect themselves from pirates by appealing to the law," said Zhang.

With the theme of "Communication, Cooperation and Win-win", the forum provided a platform to participants to discuss production, application, protection and management of intellectual property protection.

(Xinhua News Agency October 30, 2008)