News Network (Reporter Ma Disi, Photographer Xu Zhichi) On April 15th and 16th, the 14th South Lake Forum on Intellectual Property was convened in Shanghai, with more than 600 IP experts and scholars from America, Germany, Korea, Italy, Japan and China as well as workers in governments, well-known enterprises, intellectual property service institutions and law firms gathering together to offer advice and suggestions for “New Ideas of Development and the Legal Modernization of IP”.
This forum was organized by Shanghai Institute of Technology and ZUEL and undertaken by the Intellectual Property Research Center (IPRC) of ZUEL, the Sino-Europe Intellectual Property Research and Management Center of Shanghai Institute of Technology, Tencent and the State Intellectual Property Research Base, etc.
The opening ceremony, presided over by Prof. Wu Handong, Director of the IPRC of ZUEL, was graced with the presence of experts and representatives from different fields, including Yu Cike, Director of the Copyright Administration Department of National Copyright Administration, SAPPRFT, Jin Kesheng, the former Deputy Chief Judge of the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court and Vice Chairman of China's Intellectual Property Study Organization, Brent Irvin, Vice President and General Counsel of Tencent, Li Mingde, Professor of the IPRC of Chinese Academy of Social Science and Standing Vice Chairman of China's Intellectual Property Study Organization, Prof. Yao Li, Vice President of ZUEL and Prof. Chen Donghui, Vice President of Shanghai Institute of Technology, etc.
Prof. Wu Handong pointed out that innovative development constitutes the basic characteristic of knowledge-driven economy. The be-all and end-all of development consists in innovation be it for China or for the whole world. Innovation leads the times, symbolizes the big international trend and embodies the inner demand of the transitional development of Chinese economy. To change from tradition to modern, a state should consolidate its essential institutional basis, i.e. the modernization of institutional construction as well as institutional civilization, represented by IP, the basic rule of innovative development. IP provides incentive mechanism by defining property rights, offers market mechanism by normalizing property-rights exchange and designs a sound law order by protecting property rights, and by doing so, it truly deserves to be the law of innovative and industrial development.
Prof. Yao Li generally introduced our university in her speech, particularly pointing out that ZUEL has been committed to attaching great importance to improving social service, focusing on the country's prominent social problems and offering advice for political development by relying on characteristic disciplines and majors as well as strengthening platform construction, all of which have manifested our university's advantage of humanities and social sciences. She added that the South Lake Forum on IP, which has been held for 14 times so far, has become a grand IP gathering in civil society. This forum demonstrated many parts of Chinese intellectual property, system construction, environment improvement, industrial development and culture cultivation included, making it the advocator, witness and implementer of the development of IP undertakings in China. During the forum, many domestic and foreign experts made in-depth discussions and offered advice and suggestions for the modernization of IP system in China, which will definitely stimulate the healthy development of IP undertakings and provide intellectual support for the evolvement to an IP power.
Prof. Chen Donghui stated that Shanghai Institute of Technology, which has been committed to making itself an application-oriented university, has established Sino-Europe Intellectual Property Research and Management Center together with College de France and IEEPI. Prof. Chen said that this forum, teemed with IP representatives from both home and abroad, is indeed a grand gathering of IP theory and business circles. He then explained his expectation that all the guests can exchange their opinions widely in terms of the legal modernization of IP, the establishment of IPR protection system, the innovation of IP system and the construction of enterprise innovation system, etc., thus blueprinting China's economic development.
In his speech, Jin Kesheng said that South Lake Forum has become a significant and influential platform for IP research and international exchange in China, a platform collecting property law workers and a platform demonstrating and spreading the achievements of intellectual property law undertakings. Jin also pointed out two issues that deserve concern when pursuing the legal modernization of IP --the IPR protection under property right system as well as the research and application of IP case guidance system, both of which will make real contribution to promoting the legal modernization of IP if perfected and developed.
According to Brent Irvin, South Lake Forum, an international exchange platform, has provided many opportunities for mutual learning and exchange in IP field. Irvin pointed out that China’s IP protection environment worked out better than people imagined and it made great breakthrough and improvement in the field of copyright protection of digital content industry. He also pinpointed two pressing problems on how to improve IP system, namely, the scramble for registering trademark and “IP hooliganism”.
Prof. Li Mingde said in his speech that this forum borrowed the Five Development Concepts (innovation, coordination, green, open and sharing) of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and focused on three core components of IP, namely, “copyright”, “trademark right” and “patent right”. At the end of his speech, he shared his hope that all the participants can, with such an open theme, attach more importance to the amendment of Anti-Unfair Competition Law, “the Incorporation of IP into the Chinese Civil Code”and the enactment of Intellectual Property Code.
During the keynote speech, presided over by Prof. Zhang Ping, Executive Dean of the School of Intellectual Property of Peking University and Prof. Xiong Yan, Dean of the School of Economics and Management of Shanghai Institute of Technology, representatives from various fields delivered speeches and reported domestic and foreign IP theoretical and practical research in accordance with the idea of the new era, i.e. “the legal modernization of IP”. They were Watanabe Zyunmo, Vice President of University of Tokyo and Director of Japanese Intellectual Property Society, Zhang Zhicheng, Deputy Director of the Protection and Coordination Department of SIPO, Prof. Lewinsky from the Max Planck Institute of IP and Innovation in Munich, Germany, Wang Jianhua, Deputy Director of the Department of Policies and Laws of the Ministry of Culture, Prof. Antoine DINTRICH, Vice President of IEEPI and Jiang Danming, Executive Vice President of CHOFN Intellectual Property Services co., LTD, etc.
Besides, there were also four sub-forums, respectively themed at “New Development Idea and the Modernization of Copyright System”, “New Development Idea and the Modernization of Trademark System”, “New Development Idea and the Modernization of Patent System” and “New Thought of Platform Management”, all of which were discussed by the participants comprehensively, thoroughly and elaborately. And during the sub-forum of “New Thought of Platform Management”, Tencent officially issued Tencent White Paper on IPR Protection.
On the morning of 16th, Prof. Cao Xinming, Executive Deputy Director of the IPRC of ZUEL presided over the closing ceremony, during which representatives of each sub-forum reported their academic views and current achievements. Subsequently, Ms Li Lin, Executive Assistant of Intellectual Property Publishing House introduced the 2016 Selection of Excellent Doctoral Dissertation on IP, and Prof. Li Mingde announced the awarded works and winners, namely, “Research on the Words and Orders of International Protection of Intellectual Property” by Dr. Yang Jing from Tongji University (TJU), “Study on Trademark Infringement Responsibility under Network Environment” by Dr. Li Shilin from ZUEL, “Study on Indirect Trademark Infringement Responsibility” by Dr. Yang Xianwen from ZUEL and “On the Restriction of Public Interest Protection on Patent System” by Dr. Huang Jingru from Peking University, etc. Apart from that, certificates were also issued to the winners and supervisors of 2015 National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation on IP.