Beijing, China and Amsterdam, Netherlands – On April 8, the Quality Brands Protection Committee (hereinafter referred to as QBPC) and REACT signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to facilitate cooperation between the two prestigious organizations.
With a history of more than 30 years, REACT is a non-profit business association based in Amsterdam that promotes intellectual property protection, especially border protection for its 300 plus members. QBPC is the most influential member-driven organization of brand owners operating in China and focusing on facilitating improvement of IPR legal framework and enforcement in China. By signing MOU, the two organizations could make joint efforts in protecting intellectual property, conducting more effective customs trainings, sharing relevant data of border protection, connecting cross-border investigations and conducting more in-depth exchanges with customs authorities in China and all over the world. The two sides will also create programs and detailed action plans on issues of common concern.
During the brief online signing ceremony, Alan Liu, QBPC Customs Committee Chair and Ronald, Managing Director of REACT respectively made opening remarks. Ronald believed that compared with market enforcement and online enforcement, customs enforcement was a more direct and effective way of IPR protection, which could not only prevent the damage to the right holders in advance, but also directly confiscate the infringing goods. According to him, REACT had built relationship with 107 customs authorities to help them improve capacity and streamline procedures, resulting in a significant increase in seizures of goods of intellectual property infringements. Alan expressed that QBPC and REACT shared the same goals of establishing communication with customs authorities in various countries, strengthening customs protection, preventing the flow of illegal goods across borders, and the two sides could share resources to form a synergy.
Jan de Visser, Chairman of REACT, commented that QBPC had grown from a small association with more than 20 members 20 years ago into a large professional organization with responsibility, prestige and a membership of numerous top brands. Since many REACT members were also members of QBPC, they were happy with the cooperation. This collaboration would benefit all members of both organizations by providing them with more international service. It would also provide a good position to reach out to China Customs and other customs authorities in the region.
In the end, QBPC Chair Michael Ding made concluding remarks. He said he was delighted that the two sides signed the MOU. It was one of the focuses of QBPC to strengthen the cooperation with the outstanding intellectual property organizations all over the world. Through these collaborations, QBPC could not only share the best practices in China with the headquarters of its member companies and rights holders in various countries, but also bring back some constructive comments from the international IP community to different Chinese law enforcement agencies for their reference. Established for more than 30 years, REACT had rich experience and expertise in customs protection and e-commerce platform protection. It had established good worldwide network. By signing MOU, he hoped that there would be more interaction and cooperation between the two organizations in terms of brand protection practices sharing and data exchange to benefit members. More importantly, the two parties could help members better protect IPR through supporting customs authorities in China and around the world to improve relevant laws/regulations and their enforcement.
