What they say

During the ongoing meetings of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, the annual gathering of China's top legislators and political advisers, many delegates gave their comments and suggestions on innovation and intellectual property issues.

Although the licensing fees of sports events are rising, the nature of the events as copyrighted works has not been clearly recognized in China. The rights to the broadcasts of the events are not clarified in the copyright law, and unauthorized broadcasts have severely violated the interests of licensed broadcasters and viewers. A legal system for the rights to the live-streaming of sports events should be established, with harder punishment for violators, to promote healthy development of the sports industry.

Zhang Jindong, NPC deputy and the president of Suning Group

With the emerging of the animation, film and music industries, we should promote the integration of culture and technology to create more intellectual property with Chinese characteristics. The government should support the creation of high-quality original content, encourage the development of the digital cultural industry and improve capabilities in copyright operations. It should also secure the healthy development of the cultural industry by optimizing policies, enhancing supervision and fighting piracy.

Ma Huateng, NPC deputy and chairman and CEO of Tencent Holdings

High-quality development relies on innovation, and innovation relies on investment in technology and professionals. The government should create a better business climate to encourage companies to invest more in innovation. We should protect property rights, especially intellectual property rights, to ensure the benefits from innovators. A good market economy system encourages people to innovate and invest in innovation, and those who disobey laws and regulations must pay for what they do.

Zhang Zhanbin, member of the CPPCC National Committee and researcher at the Chinese Academy of Governance

There has been a good foundation for cooperation on intellectual property among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, but challenges still remain, such as differences in IP rights systems and uneven service platforms. The three regions should use their geographical advantages to share their IP service resources. IP trade institutions in the three regions should cooperate to build a national IP operations center and an industrialization alliance to increase the efficiency of industrialization.

Li Xin, member of the CPPCC National Committee and deputy chair of the CPPCC Guangdong provincial committee

Plagiarism on the internet happens from time to time. In addition to improved laws and regulations, related government agencies should build a nationwide supervision network. They should also improve the online complaint system, to facilitate internet users to report illegal content while avoiding bad-faith complaints.

Zhu Xiaojin, member of the CPPCC National Committee and vice-president of Nanjing Normal University

(China Daily 03/08/2018 page17)