WIPO China: ADG Marco Aleman at 2024 ZGC Forum Series Report (III)

April 29, 2024

Beijing, April 25 - The Global Forum on Intellectual Property Protection and Innovation opened during the first day of the ZGC Forum, jointly organized by the Beijing Municipal People's Government and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). This parallel forum focuses on "Digital Intelligence Era: Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development." Mr. Marco Alemán, Assistant Director General of WIPO, attended and addressed the event.

Alemán emphasized that achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 requires harnessing the innovation and creation potential of humankind, with intellectual property (IP) playing a critical role. In this context, WIPO recently released a report titled "Mapping Innovations: Patents and the SDGs", which leverages patents as a distinctive lens to quantify, measure, and track the progress of the SDGs. The report indicates that inventions related to the SDGs are growing at a rate surpassing the overall growth of patents across all technological fields, particularly those related to socio-economic SDGs. Through this data-driven perspective, WIPO hopes to inspire greater innovation and catalyze global sustainable development.

Liu Hua, Director of the WIPO Office in China, delivered a keynote speech. She observed three major trends in global innovation: the eastward movement of innovation centers, enhanced innovation exchanges and collaborations, and the increasing role of enterprises in driving innovation. She noted that the digital intelligence era is witnessing phenomenal events across a range of frontier technologies, exemplified by the "war of a hundred models" featuring ChatGPT and ERNIE Bot. The Artificial intelligence (AI) technology provides powerful tools for IPR protection, in areas like domain name review and infringement content identification, but also presents new challenges that need addressing. WIPO continues to advance the global intellectual property ecosystem in the digital intelligence era through initiatives such as the WIPO Conversation on IP and Frontier Technology and publishing practical guides like "Generative AI: Navigating Intellectual Property".

At the forum, awards were presented to the 7th Beijing Invention Patent Awards winners, with 36 invention patents recognized from China State Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Tsinghua University, among others. The Technology and Innovation Support Centers (TISCs) from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region signed a cooperation agreement to support the innovation development through coordinated cooperation of the TISC network.

The Parallel Forum on Intellectual Property at ZGC Forum has been held six times and has become an important platform for global IP exchange, cooperation, and collaborative innovation. The forum featured keynote speakers from domestic and international intellectual property experts, representatives from international organizations, embassies, academia, and the business community. They discussed the opportunities, challenges, and strategies for IP in the digital intelligence era, collectively drawing a blueprint for the sustainable development.