Protecting intellectual property remains a high priority for many countries as the decade draws to a close. The fifth China-UK Intellectual Property Symposium kicked off in Beijing on Friday. Delegates from China's National Intellectual Property Administration and the UK's Intellectual Property Office conducted in-depth exchanges on issues such as personnel exchange and training, combating malicious registration of trademarks, artificial intelligence, and more.

In the opening speech by Shen Changyu, Commissioner of China National Intellectual Property Administration, the importance of innovation was one of his key points. "Innovation is an important force for progress and an important engine for development. The establishment of the intellectual property system has provided important institutional guarantees for the innovation of China and Britain.”

"We look forward to working with the British side in the future to keep pushing our intellectual property cooperation to a new level," Shen added.

While stressing willingness to strengthen cooperation with China, Tim Moss, CEO of the UK Intellectual Property Office, also emphasized that leaving the EU does not have any impact on the UK, especially in international cooperation and trade.

"As we leave the EU, we will not be stepping back from the international stage. But actually we will be moving forward…The UK remains open for business," Tim said.