Cambodia has received the details of the first 20 patents from companies as an agreement recognising Chinese intellectual property rights came into force officially.
The patents were handed over on Thursday of last week at the signing of a memorandum of understanding in Phnom Penh.
The agreement was officially signed by Chinese State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) commissioner Shen Changyu and Cambodian Industry Minister Cham Prasidh.
“The validation agreement between SIPO and Cambodia officially entered into force on March 29, helping protect Chinese invention patents in the kingdom,” said Phe Chantravuth, director of the ministry’s department of intellectual property.
He said that during the official MoU signing, China applied for recognition of 20 patents and Cambodia handed over the recognition certificates the same day to his Chinese counterpart.
Mr Chantravuth said three companies applied for patent recognition. Huawei Technology had two patents, ZTE Cooperation had eight and Nutech Limited had ten.
“This is the first set of 20 patents and there will be more from China,” he said.
Mr Shen said during the signing that Cambodia had progressed remarkably on intellectual property. Cooperation on the recognition of Chinese patents would build more trust among Chinese investors about bringing their technology and innovative ideas to invest in Cambodia.
“All Chinese companies which invest or will invest in Cambodia are happy as their ideas and products are protected by law,” Mr Shen said.
This will be the fourth patent agreement that Cambodia has signed with foreign entities, following similar deals with the European Union, Singapore and Japan.
The kingdom currently lacks the human resources, skills and equipment needed to process foreign invention patents.
This article was originally published in the Khmer Times.
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