EDITOR'S NOTE: On May 29 2021, the main activity of the third International Mountain Tourism Day—the World Heritage Famous Mountain (Jinfo Mountain) Summit kicked off in Nanchuan District, Chongqing Municipality, China successfully. Themed with “World Heritage Protection and Green Development of Mountain Tourism”, the Summit got strong support from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), the Global Tourism Economy Forum (GTEF), the Internationale Organisation Für Volkskunst (IOV) and the China Association of National Parks and Scenic Sites. The theme forum presented wonderful contents with high-level opinions, frontier observations and dialogues on trends. The speeches will be released in succession to share with industry colleagues.
Liu Hua, Director of World Intellectual Property Organization Office in China delivered a speech at the summit:
My speech today covers three topics: First, how does IP facilitate the protection of world heritages and sustainable development of mountain tourism? Second, how does World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO in short, see China’s innovation, creation, and IP undertakings? Third, how does WIPO Office in China help us exactly and what are their future directions?
1. IP facilitates the protection of world heritages and sustainable development of mountain tourism?
Founded in 1967, WIPO has so far had a total of 193 member countries. WIPO is like a mine of golden knowledge assets, and whoever able to excavate the assets from it succeeds. But how does one get his hands on the golden knowledge assets? Well, WIPO offers five “golden keys” from which all of us, decision maker or entrepreneur, musician or writer, can find a chance of our own.
The first gold key—Policy Forum. WIPO member countries discuss and negotiate major decisions and issues like the latest updates, regulations, and administration in the IP field at WIPO Assemblies and Permanent Committee. The Policy Forum is a platform of soft power, and who ever controls the rules takes the high ground and seizes the future directions. In recent years, the rising of cutting-edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence, AI for short, has caused controversies in IP policies, so WIPO decides to set up a leading forum for everyone to discuss these cutting-edge technologies and relevant IP policies. Since 2019, WIPO has launched three “Conversations on Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence,” discussing how the technology of AI influences IPs, and bridging the information gap between AI technology practitioners (technology companies and research institutes) and administers (IP administrations) in such a fast-growing yet complicated area. Responsible stakeholders from governments, business circle, and academic world, including the Supreme People’s Court of China, Ministry of Science and Technology of China, National Copyright Administration, China National Intellectual Property Administration, Institute of Automation of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou Institute of Artificial Intelligence of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Nanjing University of Science & Technology, Alibaba, Baidu, Huawei, Tencent, Xiaomi, China Mobile, Meituan, iFLYTEK, and SenseTime, took part in the Conversation. Based on that, WIPO is forming up preliminary suggestions on IP policies targeted at AI technology, and will be made public in due time for member countries to deliberate on.
The second gold key—Registration Systems. Big corporations, small firms, or individuals, all need to both innovate and have their IPs protected while going global or entering the Chinese market. So, how to find protection? WIPO provides one-stop service via Patent Cooperation Treaty, Madrid System, Hague System, and Lisbon System. One application form, one language, and one kind of currency enable them to get protection in a cheap, convenient, professional and safe manner in multiple countries. In addition, WIPO PROOF is the latest digital business service specially designed for the digitalizing world, offering protection for each development stage of digital files, from conception all the way to commercialization. What’s more, to help enterprises solve IP disputes, WIPO Alternative Dispute Resolution offers professional, neutral, and non-profit services of conciliation, arbitration, quick arbitration, and expert arbitration, helping enterprises solve cross-border IP disputes quickly and efficiently.
The third gold key—Databases. WIPO administers tons of data, with PATENTSCOPE housing over 96 million technology disclosures, Global Brand Database possessing about 45.41 million trademarks, and Global Design Database holding around 13.48 million appearance designs. These data help users find out prior rights; information of right holders; whether they can get permission from right holders to get the technologies or information they need; whether they can use invalid patent information; updates of competitors; and the latest development of the field they operate. Additionally, WIPO provides everyone with IP legal information all over the world for free, including treaties, laws and regulations, and judgements.
The fourth gold key—Cooperation Platforms. WIPO’s Cooperation Platforms contain WIPO Technology and Innovation Support Center (TISC), WIPO GREEN—the Marketplace for Sustainable Technology, Pat- INFORMED—the Gateway to Medicine Patent Information, the Access to Specialized Patent Information (ASPI), the Access to Research for Development and Innovation (ARDI), and Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) in the IP field.
The fifth key—Capacity Building. Centered around WIPO Academy, WIPO offers IP-related learning services across the globe, including Joint Master’s degrees offered in partnership with prestigious universities, training sessions for government and public sector officials, E-learning courses for everyone, and summer courses for young students.
In general, the tourism sector can fully employ WIPO’s global IP service systems, databases, and cooperation platforms, to further improve the quality of tourism service via creating brands, developing landmark products, innovating product designs, and creating cultural concepts, as well as to trigger tourists’ consumption impulse, and to promote the green and sustainable development of tourism economy.
2. How does WIPO see China’s innovation, creation, and IP undertakings?
Currently, China ranks the first worldwide in patents, utility models, trademarks, and industrial designs, and enjoys 17 top global science and technology clusters.
Mr. Daren Tang, WIPO Director General, highly appreciates the progress that China makes in innovation, creation, and IP undertakings. He thinks China’s policy planning, implementation and evaluation, adherence and determination to deepening reform and opening up, and strong IP ecosystem have contributed to its remarkable achievements.
3. The future directions of WIPO Office in China
At present, we prioritize Northern, Eastern and Southern China, with Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou at the core, explore cooperative opportunities with and give due regard to Central, Southwestern and North-eastern China with focus on Chongqing, Chengdu, Guiyang, and other cities. We branch out from three service centers to cover the entire country, and cooperate with the Chinese government. What’s more, we assist China’s preservation of natural heritage, rural construction, and technology advance via WIPO’s global IP service systems, in a bid to provide everyone with timely and efficient services.
