Forum on Future of IP in Virtual World at Boao Annual Conference | Series Reports (II)
April 2, 2023
On March 30, the Forum on "The Future of IP in the Digital Economy and A Fully Virtual World" was held in Boao as part of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2023. The event was jointly organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the BFA and was one of the activities in the World Intellectual Property Day 2023 series. Notable attendees included Ms. Wang Binying, Deputy Director General of WIPO, Mr. Zhang Jianchun, Vice Minister of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, Mr. Shen Changyu, Commissioner of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), as well as representatives from the University of Chinese Academy of Science, Qualcomm, iFLYTEK, Huawei, Alibaba, and Ping An, who delivered speeches at the forum. The forum was presided over by Ms. Liu Hua, Director of the WIPO Office in China (WOC).
Ms. Wang discussed the role of frontier technologies in driving innovation and creativity in the digital age at the forum. She emphasized that IP has become a key driver of innovation in frontier technologies, which has raised interrelated issues that need to be viewed from the perspective of the entire IP system. WIPO has established an IP and Frontier Technologies Division to facilitate discussions among member states and stakeholders on this topic. Ms. Wang also highlighted the important role of middle and small-sized enterprises, women, and youth in the global IP system and referred to the theme of this year's World IP Day. WIPO will continue to provide a global forum to support innovation and creativity, welcoming Chinese stakeholders to share their experience and contribute to the discussion.
Mr. Zhang stated that China's digital economy has ranked second in the world for several years, and its role in promoting a new development pattern, building a modern economic system, and constructing new national competitive advantages has become increasingly prominent. Mr. Zhang emphasized the importance of copyright in the digital age, and highlighted China's active embrace of technological advances and promotion of innovation and industrial changes in the copyright sector. He called for accelerating the improvement of the copyright protection system, optimizing the mechanism for new industries and modes, and actively participating in the global governance system of digital copyright. Zhang expressed China's willingness to strengthen copyright exchanges and cooperation with countries worldwide and promote the high-quality development of the copyright industry, the flourishing of the digital economy, and the building of a better Asia and world.
Mr. Shen highlighted the importance of developing China's digital economy, which currently accounts for 39.8% of the country's GDP. He emphasized the need to strengthen the property rights system of data and to utilize intellectual property rights to promote innovation, protection, and transformation of the digital economy. The CNIPA has organized local pilot projects on data IP protection, achieving positive results. Mr. Shen also expressed the CNIPA's commitment to deepening cooperation with IP authorities worldwide to build a dynamic global IP ecosystem and foster the development of the digital economy.
Mr. Dai stressed the importance of judicial protection of IP in the digital economy. He highlighted China's strengthened legislation and the Hainan Free Trade Port Intellectual Property Court's efforts to promote the digital economy. Looking ahead, he stated the Court will explore new paths for judicial escort of the digital economy, enhance exchanges and cooperation, and fulfill its mission of protecting and regulating the digital economy in accordance with the law.
Mr. Song Hefa, Deputy Dean of IP School at University of Chinese Academy of Science, discussed China's latest policies for strengthening IP protection. These include strengthening the rule of law, forming a basic system to support comprehensive innovation, and making arrangements for the protection of IP in new fields and industries. Mr. Song emphasized the need for increased investment in R&D, optimizing the layout of science and technology resources, promoting the close integration of IP and industrial development, and strengthening IP protection to support new technologies like AI, quantum communication, metaverse, and synthetic biology.
Mr. Qian Kun, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Qualcomm Technology Licensing (QTL) China, emphasized the importance of IP protection in incentivizing and protecting innovation, especially in the context of the new wave of innovation driven by 5G+AI. Qualcomm's commitment to investing in research and development has enabled it to become the world's leading innovator in wireless technology. With over $80 billion invested in R&D and more than 140,000 granted patents and patent applications worldwide, Qualcomm's focus on inventing fundamental solutions to solve technical challenges has been the key to its success.
Ms. Doranda DOO from iFLYTEK Co., Ltd, highlighted the trend of "liquidity", "sharing", and "re-mixing" in the digital era, and emphasized the importance of coordinating the scientific and technological forces to accelerate cognitive intelligence development in China. She also discussed the protection of data, patents, and copyrights related to AI. Ms. Doo stressed that a balanced IP regime is crucial to encourage innovation, consider ethical and safety risks of AI, and promote the development of the digital economy for the benefit of society.
Mr. Fan Zhiyong, Vice President of Huawei Technologies, discussed promoting AI technology sharing and globalization through standards and patent licensing. Unified industry standards promote technology sharing, progress, and economic benefits. The patent system protects technologies in open standards, and licensing rewards innovators, promoting further investment in technology and innovation. Standardizing AI technology is essential for promoting competition, globalization, protecting investment, and industrial security. Encouraging enterprises to contribute their technologies to open standards is important. Building a standardized value chain for AI technology requires the joint efforts of industry, government, and academia.
Alibaba's Vice President, Ms. Xing Yue, discussed the company's exploration of inclusive and sustainable innovation development in the digital era. She highlighted the importance of IP in stimulating and protecting innovation and creativity, and its role in connecting the physical and virtual worlds in the metaverse. She used four key words, "fusion", "fission", "inclusive" and "future", to explain the technological fusion, innovative fission, inclusive development, and opportunities and challenges that these new developments may face in the future.
Mr. Xiao Jing, Chief Scientist of Ping An Insurance (Group), discussed the symbiotic relationship between digital technology and IP, and how to promote innovation and development in the digital economy. He emphasized the importance of exploring the value of IP, leveraging data elements, and using digital technology to empower industrial IP management. He also highlighted the need to implement digital IP accomplishments, construct economic activity norms in a virtual world, and pay attention to international IP development.
Ms. Liu appreciated speakers for their excellent speeches and delivered a conclusion remarks for the forum. She said that, during the forum, we have firstly discussed in depth the revolutionary changes brought about by the frontier technologies represented by AI, blockchain, cloud computing and GPT that we are currently experiencing. These technologies are profoundly transforming the way that we live, work and play, bringing unprecedented opportunities and challenges to human society.
Secondly, we have highlighted the importance of unlocking the potential of the technological revolution. Various stakeholders, including governments, academia, business and civil society, need to strengthen their cooperation and work together to promote institutional construction, governance, laws and regulations, capacity building and talent development to embrace a better future.
Thirdly, we call for leadership to be demonstrated. Decision-makers in government, business leaders, and academic figures need to create favorable policies, laws, and business environments for future technologies, seize new trends, platforms, and opportunities.
Fourthly, we believe that intellectual property can serve as a powerful policy tool to promote growth and development. WIPO will continue to spread good stories about Chinese intellectual property, improve the global intellectual property service system, and help take new ideas to the market. We will continue to strengthen coordination and cooperation with all stakeholders, and together forge a balanced, inclusive, dynamic, and future-looking intellectual property ecosystem that enables IP for everyone, and from everywhere.
