The annual Sino-US intellectual property event, i.e. “The 5th China-US Intellectual Property Summit,” was held on November 14 and 15 in Shenzhen, the most innovative matropolitan in China. The Summit focused on the theme of “Intellectual Property and the Transformation of Economy.” It is hoped that through continuous communication, we will be able to grasp the pulse of the economy and promote the coordination and development of the law and the economy.
The Summit was co-hosted by the Renmin University of China Academy of IP, China Intellectual Property Law Association, Berkeley Center For Law & Technology, and Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. It was co-organized by Beijing Sunshine Intellectual Property and Legal Development Foundation (SSIP), and also sponsored by IP House（知产宝）, Lung Tin Intellectual Property Agent Ltd, Hogan Lovells, and Techvisum （峰创智诚）. Zhichanli, an IP press, provided support to the event, too. It promised to bring the most comprehensive and timely reports of the event to the readers.
At the opening ceremony, experts from the organizers, Prof. Liu Chuntian, Dean of Academy of IP RUC and President of China IP Law Association, Robert Merges, Professor of UC Berkeley, and Song Haiyan, Professor of Loyala Law School, gave a welcome speech respectively.
Professor Liu Chuntian shared his thoughts on the “China-US Intellectual Property Summit” which he had participated for five times. He said that the “China-US Intellectual Property Summit” has been held for five years, and it had earned recognition from the society. The reason for this is that the topics discussed on the summit are always the most essential issues that are connected to human life. Human is a life form, but it is a “creative” life. It is the ability to create that makes human different from other life forms. It helps us to improve not only the nature but also ourselves, to improve the environment that we live in, and to make progress. Creativity is the essence of human being. And the results of this creativity is technology and knowledge.
The progress of technology and knowledge also brings about the concept of property. We are familiar with property, yet we do not actually fully understand the concept of property. Scholars studying “property” and “institution” seldom provide clear definition and theory about property. Yet we still keep pursuing the true nature of property. And we find that knowledge is the real origin, the real “gene” of property.
Property and knowledge had become closely related in the Industrial Era. And how is it work? It works by the IP system. IP originated with industrial civilization. Till now, we still cannot see when the industrial civilization would end. And the world is now a mix of pre-industrial civilization, industrial civilization, and post-industrial civilization. This is a fascinating situation, and we are discussing about its origin and its roots, i.e. the core issue that all human kind concern.
Why this summit focus on IP? Why is it between China and the United States? Because they are the two largest economies in the world, one is the potential innovation-driven economy and other other is already an innovation-driven economy. IP is the most important leverage for their development. He believes that, as an innovative economy, China has its own features. China will definitely become an innovative economy. It will have close connection with the United States, but it will be different from the United States. Therefore, it is more correct to say that the relationship between China and U.S. is based on IP than on economy, trade, politics or culture.
China and the U.S. has too many contradictions yet also many common language on the issues of IP. Thus, we have created a number of mechnanism for dialogue and communication, such as the “Dialogue between China and U.S. IP Scholars,” and “Asia-Pacific IP Forum.” And that the China-US IP Summit is so welcomed is also due to the foregoing factors.
Prof. Robert Merges of UC Berkeley expressed that he was so glad to have the chance to communicate in depth with colleages from Chinese IP circles. And he hoped that there would be more platforms for the academic exchange between China and the U.S.
He said that in U.S., most of their research focused on the legal situation and cases of the United States. His focus of research is also in U.S. IP law. But after he saw so many gradutates from UC Berkeley doing so good in the area of IP in the grand China area, he realized that the importance of Asia in the development of the IP field.
It has special significance for the 5th China-US IP Summit to be held in Shenzhen. The U.S. is proud of itself by high tech and innovation, especially by the Sillycon Valley. But I can see that Shenzhen also has the same innovative spirit. One of the central tasks for Berkeley Center for Law & Technology is to connect the established firms, start-ups and the government, to facilitate the cooperation among production, study and research. He thinks that they can play a good role on this and build a good platform for people to know what the most up-to-date, cutting-edge technologies are.
He believes that RUC Shenzhen will also play a same important role. It will become an important platform for all participants of the innovation system. And it will become a neutrel platform for different group of interests, for them to discuss the future of IP policies. He believes that is exactly what a research institute should do, i.e. to build a platform for innovation. He hopes that through the cooperation between scholars, scholars and practitioners, we should build a mechanism for communication and coopertion and most importantly, to promote the development of IP.
Prof. Song Haiyan, Professor of Loyala Law School was the bridge among the organizers of this Summit. She said that the summit is not just about legal issues, legal doctrines or what is happening in China or the U.S. this year, but more importantly the connection and exchange between scholars and experts. The bonding and trust of each other among scholars and experts from China and the U.S. is so important. With such bonding and trust, a lot of problems can be solved.
She said that Prof. Liu Chuntian is a scholar with the most original idea she ever met. The most original ideas in all the Summits before were brought about by Prof. Liu. And it is the same in the Summit. Prof Liu has proposed two additional issues to the Summit of this year. One is the protection of privacy, and the other is the topic of entertainment law. For her, entertainment law is her focus for the last decade. And she believed that Prof. Liu has choose the two most important topics in China and U.S. or even in the globe.
Pivate information, no matter in the form of email or message in social media, no matter how you use wechat, sms, or cellphone, has already been recorde in the third party database. Technology provides us with conveniency, yet at the same time, a lot of private information is controlled by third parties. This concerns us. For this reason, the Summit invites experts in the area of information privacy from Hong Kong, China and the U.S. to join the talks.
Besides, China and the U.S. are the two larges markets for the entertainment industry, not just for movies and TVs, but also for video games. Issues in entertainment law are also important to the international economy. The Summit will be divided into six sections, to discuss topics about trade secret protection, privacy protection on the Internet, the development of IP courts, international cooperation in the area of IP, entertainment law, the commercialization of patent and brand protection, for the following two days. She hoped that the Summit will contribute something to the development of law, economy and culture for the two countries.
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Copyright: The Beijing Sunshine Intellectual Property and Legal Development Foundation