On September 4, 2017 the Eurasian Patent Office delegation visited the State Intellectual Property Office of P.R. China (SIPO).

The key event of the visit was the signing by EAPO President Saule Tlevlessova and SIPO Commissioner Shen Changyu Memorandum of Understanding on Patent Prosecution Highway Pilot Program (PPH) and the Intellectual Property Data Exchange Agreement.

The signed EAPO-SIPO Memorandum of Understanding on Patent Procedure Highway Pilot Program provides the applicants having filed with EAPO or SIPO with an opportunity to make a benefit from PPH if the other Office has issued a positive decision. The date for launch of the Program is April 1, 2018. The Eurasian Patent Office will, before the date of launch, place documents regulating the procedure for submitting request for PPH on the EAPO web portal.
The Intellectual Property Data Exchange Agreement between EAPO and SIPO establishes the composition and formats of patent information to be exchanged between the two Offices. The implementation of the provisions of this agreement will ensure the regular update of the EAPO and SIPO search and document retrieval systems with new patent documents data published by each Office. When signing the agreement, the parties noted the importance of creating and maintaining collections of EAPO patent information as a regional organization, and those of China as the largest office in terms of publication of patent information.

Apart from signing the mentioned documents EAPO President Saule Tlevlessova and SIPO Commissioner Shen Changyu held talks at which they discussed the state of bilateral cooperation, the current performance indicators of the two agencies, the practical issues of implementing the agreements signed between EAPO and SIPO, the prospects for the development of experience exchange activities between examiners of the two agencies and mutual participation in conferences, seminars, etc. SIPO Commissioner also informed the guests about the enactment by the Chinese patent office of new state initiatives in the field of intellectual property and about the activities implemented by the Office in the Eurasian region as part of the P.R. China One Belt One Road strategy.