Protecting intellectual property rights (IPR) is to respect knowledge, encourage innovation and protect productivity, said Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday during his visit to an IPR protection exhibition held in Chinese Military Museum in Beijing.

The exhibition, the first of its kind, demonstrates China's achievements and progress in IPR protection in recent years.

Premier Wen carefully watched pictures and models on display and appreciates the achievements made by different government departments, he also inquired domestic companies' latest progress in independent innovation and IPR protection.

"The 350KA electrobath, which has obtained 109 patents including 41 inventions, is our own product and has been exported to India, Kazakhstan and other countries", said Liu Xiangmin, Vice President of Aluminum Corporation of China, when he answered Premier Wen's question on the product's intellectual property rights.

"In fact, the competition in the world is among intellectual property rights, brands, quality and technology", said Wen Jiabao. He also hopes the company could invent more products with China's own intellectual property rights.

When hearing an engineer of State Grid Corporation of China introducing the company's 1-million-volt high voltage technology, Premier Wen said China should adopt and develop advanced technologies as it is a huge electricity consumer.

The Premier expressed great satisfaction when he learned the technology of carbon brake disk for passenger plane independently developed by China has been applied in domestic-route Boeing and Airbus.

"It is a great time for China to develop space technologies." said Wen as he lingered for a long time at a model of new-generation carrier rocket.

When watching the exhibition on the crackdown of some 100 illegal VCD/DVD production lines in Guangdong Province, the premier stressed that though it is an arduous task, the province must pay great attention to the problem of piracy and increase awareness on IPR protection.

He reiterated that cracking down on piracy and strengthening law enforcement are very important in China's IPR protection.

"The exhibition shows Chinese government's determination on IPR protection", said the premier.

He added that China attaches great importance to it and it meets the needs of China's modernization drive and is the country's commitment to the international community.

Wen stressed that China will take four measures to establish a complete IPR protection system: enhancing law enforcement; improving administrative supervision; broadening international co-operation and fostering IPR protection awareness among the public.

As long as China makes unremitting efforts, it could set up a complete and effective system for intellectual property rights protection with strict law-enforcement and strong supervision, people's awareness will also be enhanced.

By People's Daily Online