Series of Roundtables 2023 with Women

March 7, 2023

In the occasion of International Women's Day and World Intellectual Property Day 2023, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Office in China (WOC) organized a Roundtable on the Empowerment of Women through IP in Beijing on the afternoon of February 28, to celebrate the ground-breaking work of women around the world to build a better future and encourage more women to accelerate innovation and creation via intellectual property (IP). More than 30 representatives from government, academia, associations, business and media were invited to attend and speak at the event.

Ms. Liu Hua, Director of the WOC, welcomed the female delegates from all walks of life to the Roundtable. She introduced the five highlights of WOC's work in 2022, including China joining WIPO's two important treaties in 2022, two Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) winning the first-ever WIPO Global Awards, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang sending a congratulatory letter to the 2022 Global Innovation Index (GII) Global Launch, WIPO Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) service facilitating the business community in China with new route for resolving foreign-related IP disputes, and the enhancement of WIPO social media presences in China. She also outlined four priorities of WOC work plan for 2023, including explaining the potential of IP and telling IP stories with people-centered approach, building partnerships for a balanced and effective global IP ecosystem, providing high-quality IP services to deliver value to Chinese users and making IP as powerful policy tools for growth and development.

During the event, Director Liu also drew attention to the upcoming World IP Day 2023 and the WIPO Global Awards 2023. She highlighted that the theme of World IP Day 2023, "Women and IP: Accelerating Innovation and Creativity", renews the focus on women after 2018, emphasizing the importance that WIPO places on women as innovators and creators. WIPO will be organizing a series of events to celebrate the enormous potential of women worldwide to innovate. Director Liu encouraged Chinese women innovators and creators to focus on their own development and actively participate in the following events.

• Video Competition: The theme of the Video Competition is “When women enter the IP universe, we accelerate innovation and creativity and everyone's a winner”. Entrants are expected to show why it is important for girls and women to switch on to IP, and how we all benefit, in a 90-second video. The final three winners will be announced on World IP Day, April 26 and win great prizes! The entry deadline is March 19.
• Create Your Own 2023 World IP Day Campaign: WIPO encourages everyone using the materials available to develop your own, customized World IP Day campaign in line with your own public awareness goals, to maximize impact among your target audiences.
• Resources and Tools for Women Inventors, Creators and Entrepreneurs: Resources, information videos, seminars and workshops provided by WIPO will offer useful insights about the IP ecosystem and how women inventors, creators and entrepreneurs can benefit from it to achieve their goals and thereby help accelerate innovation and creativity. World IP Day 2023 homepage also featured the WIPO IP Diagnostics created by top experts, which is dedicated to enhance users' capabilities of IP operation, layout, awareness and risk prevention, and to better empower women with IP.

In addition, Director Liu mentioned that WIPO launched the 2023 WIPO Global Awards in January, open to applicants from around the world and from all industries. The 2023 Global Awards continue to focus on small and medium-sized enterprises, with seven winners selected from a global pool of candidates, and the application deadline is March 31. Director Liu expressed her hope that more women entrepreneurs would participate in the Global Awards, showcasing the excellence of women as innovators, creators, and entrepreneurs. She emphasized that the Global Awards are an excellent platform for women to gain recognition for their achievements and encourage more women to pursue innovation and creativity in the field of intellectual property.

Voices of Participants

Ms. Zeng Yanni, Deputy Director General of the Intellectual Property Development Research Centre of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), said that the role of women in innovation is self-evident, but the lack of awareness of this within society has led to a weakened and neglected role for women in innovation and creativity. WIPO pays full attention and importance to women, not only focusing on women in the themes of both World IP Day 2018 and 2023, but also in the GII, where indicators on female inventors are specifically analyzed. China has also further recognized and valued the role of women in innovation and creativity through policy development and other support services, paying attention to the problems and obstacles they encounter and evaluating women's achievements and contributions in a fairer way.

Ms. Wang Hua, Deputy Director of Division I of International Cooperation Development of CNIPA, expressed that IP is a sunrise industry and is a friendly incentive for women to innovate and create. China values the development of women's IP career and hopes that women can play a greater role in the field of IP.

Ms. Li Na, Deputy Director of the China Intellectual Property Training Center, mentioned that the China Intellectual Property Training Center has carried out close cooperation with WIPO Academy for many years, and has localized the courses of WIPO Academy, developed a Chinese platform for distance education online learning, and provided teacher training. She expressed the hope that the two parties could further strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation, empower women through IP training and contribute to the development of IP talent.

Ms. Zhang Ping, Professor at Beijing University, said that women are suitable and competent for IP work, and that women's kindness and tolerance fit well with the spirit of WIPO and the main theme of World IP Day. She hoped that WIPO would further promote and facilitate the development of women and encourage more women to participate in the IP business.

Ms. Jiang Ge, Associate Professor of Tsinghua University, suggested that further attention be paid to the topic of how women are involved in the creation of IP innovations and creations, and that data be collected to describe the facts about women's IP innovations in China, so as to present a more complete and comprehensive picture of the power of women to the public.

Ms. Zhang Xiaoxia, President of the Second Trial Division of the Beijing Intellectual Property Court, said that WIPO provides a platform to tell the story of IP. She reflected on her own growth as a female president and said that in the future, with the rapid socio-economic development, China will produce a richer and more diverse range of IP cases and more female judges will be involved in IP trials with a cutting-edge and professional approach.

According to Ms. Zhang Nan, Associate Professor at China University of Political Science and Law, her achievements in research have benefited from WIPO's "five sets of golden keys", and she hopes to strengthen cooperation with WIPO in the training of foreign-related legal personnel and to increase Chinese participation and contribution in international organizations.

Ms. Zhang Chi, Chairman of China Policy Intellectual Property Research Institute, women frequently need to exert more effort to attain the same achievements and gain the same respect from society as males in the workplace. Nonetheless, IP defend the intellectual accomplishments of women and highlight the power of knowledge, enabling women to display strong intelligence and perseverance in their work.

Two outstanding Chinese women scientists, Ms. Wang Aijie, a professor at Harbin Institute of Technology, and Ms. Wang Meiyun, Vice President of the School of Medical Technology at Zhengzhou University, also shared their IP stories.

Ms. Wang Aijie, won the second prize of the State Technological Innovation Award in 2020 and Science and Technology Innovation Award of Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation in 2022. Her research focuses on water reclamation and recycling, and her findings are important for solving the problem of water scarcity and achieving high quality and sustainable development for society. She said that many women scientists like her have not only made significant contributions to China's scientific research, but have also transformed their research results into economic value through IP protection and commercialisation, driving the development of related industries.

Ms. Wang Meiyun was elected as an academician of the American Academy of Medicine and Bioengineering for her outstanding medical contributions. Her research and achievements in the field of medical imaging have provided important support and assistance to doctors in the diagnosis of various diseases, especially covid-19 pneumonia. She said that IP protection and the IP ecosystem have provided solid protection and convenient services for the innovation and creativity of many women scientists in the medical field, and she hoped that WIPO would not only focus on building the IP ecosystem at the international and national levels, but also provide support for the establishment and improvement of the IP ecosystem at the provincial level.

Ms. Wang Weijie, Legal Director of Xiaomi Group, and Ms. Zhang Lei, Greater China IP Manager of Nestle (China) Co., Ltd., said that the companies they worked for both regularly used WIPO's services and resources and felt that WIPO provided a wealth of information and easy access to its services. Ms. Wang believes that in the context of the digital age and deep science waves, women's strengths may be even more evident. Ms. Wu Lin, Chief IP Advisor of Douyin Group, and Ms. Qiu Xue, Patent Director of Tencent Group, said that both Douyin Group and Tencent Group are highly concerned about and recognize the value of IP, with a high proportion of women in IP-related positions within the companies, and the intelligence and creativity of professional women being more fully demonstrated in the IP field.

Ms. Gu Haiyan, General Manager of Legal Department of Sina Group, Ms. Lu Yuan, IP Director of Kuaishou Technology Co Ltd, Ms. Cui Lingling, General Manager of Patent Affairs Department of Baidu Group, Ms. Wang Wei, Chief Representative of the China Office of the French Champagne Industry Council and Ms. He Yanfang, Assistant General Manager of Zhongguancun Development Group stated that women can gain economic income and spiritual satisfaction through IP and play an important role in innovation creation and IP protection in China with their unique perspective, but society still needs to give more attention and support to women.

Ms. Zou Ren, Secretary General of the China Financial Media Copyright Protection Union, and Ms. Feng Hua, Secretary General of the Capital Copyright Association also shared their work experience. They said that the cooperation with WOC had enabled them to gain a deeper understanding of the various services provided by WIPO, and they also benefited deeply from the knowledge, information, resources and platforms provided by WIPO, and hoped to have more extensive and in-depth cooperation with WIPO.

Representatives from the Copyright Department of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, China Invention Association, Beijing Industrial Design Promotion Association, Beijing Women's Foreign Exchange Association, Shandong Geographical Indication Industry Association, Beijing Feitian Technologies Co., Ltd. and the Magazine of Women of China also attended the Roundtable and shared their views on the current dilemmas and achievements of women in the field of innovation and creation, and how WIPO can better empower women's development with IP.