China and Italy signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on intellectual property Tuesday in Beijing.

The MOU was signed between the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and the Italian Trade Commission.

This is the first time for the non-governmental Chinese trade promotion body to sign an intellectual property memo with other countries, said Liu Wenjie, CCPIT vice chairman.

In an era of knowledge-based economy, Italy and China share the objective on the protection of intellectual property, Antonio Marzano, minister of Production Activities of Italy, said at the signing ceremony. "It is in the common interests of the two countries."

Marzano is accompanying Italian President Carlo Ciampi on his China visit.

Ciampi's ongoing visit to China will surely give a mighty push to the China-Italy trade, CCPIT Chairman Wan Jifei said. "This memo is among the fruits of Ciampi's China tour."

According to the statistics released by China Customs, the volume of China's trade with Italy in the first 10 months of this year reached 12.68 billion US dollars, up 31.6 percent from a year earlier, with its exports and imports growing by 37.1 percent and 24.7 percent to 7.42 billion US dollars and 5.26 billion US dollars respectively.

"The signing of the document will promote the China-Italy cooperation on protecting intellectual property and cracking down on fake and pirated products," Liu said.

China and Italy are said to sign a detailed agreement soon. With this agreement, both sides will offer companies information on the related law, help with trade mark registration and hold seminars on intellectual property protection, laws and rules on fighting fake commodities.