The 2020 Forum on Global Trade, Technology Innovation and Intellectual Property was held from January 14th to 15th in Nansha Guangzhou.

With the theme of ‘platform economy and intellectual property rights (IPR) protection’, the forum shed light into how the platform economy affects the trading of products, and dig deep into the topic through six sub-forums on the effects, economic value, legislation, law enforcement, and technologies of IPR protection under the context of platform economy.

[PhotoLiang Wenxiang, Nanfang Daily]

Yi Xiaozhun, Deputy Director General of World Trade Organization, said technologies, especially the development of Internet, have changed the international trade massively in terms of trading modes and subjects over the past decades.“The forum aims to share the experience of global trade, knowledge innovation and IPR system,” Yi said.

“The forum invites different stakeholders, such as IP owners, platform operators and administrators, from all over the world,”he added,“we confront similar opportunities and challenges so it will benefit our stakeholders to further communication on management, legal issues and new technologies including AI and blockchain.”

The forum attracted judges of IP Courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, government officials of related departments, IPR administrators from countries including Europe, Canada and Basil as well as representatives of tech enterprises including Alibaba, Xiaomi and Baidu.

Han Xiucheng, Director of Intellectual Property Department & Research Center of China National Intellectual Property Administration, revealed that platform economy takes up more than 10 percent of China’s GDP and the number is growing rapidly, and he said IPR policy is vital to protect platform technologies and encourage innovation from platform operators.

[PhotoLiang Wenxiang, Nanfang Daily]

Han said China has been attaching importance to IPR protection since 2012.“Improving our protection on IPR needs efforts from different stakeholders. While Enterprises should also raise their awareness of IPR management and protection as well,”he said.

In addition, the forum witnessed the release of the Trade and Intellectual Rights Nansha Initiative which shows the determination to improve IPR protection through better understanding of market demands, enhancing administrative and legal protection as well as fostering professional IPR management institutions. Guangdong Provincial Office of Pilot Free Trade Zones, Guangdong Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, Guangdong Sub-Administration of China Customs, Nansha FTZ, Qianhai FTZ and Hengqin FTZ jointly signed the Initiative.

The forum was held by WTO, Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation and Intellectual Property Development and Research Center China National Intellectual Property Administration.

Reported by Jasmine Yin

Edited by Olivia Ouyang