Blockchain to play key role in protecting copyrights

Shenzhen, host of recent IP summit, becoming hub for cultural industry

New technologies, including blockchain, will be widely used to protect intellectual property in China to improve efficiency and accuracy and lower the costs, experts said.

"The blockchain technology is resistant to modification of the data once it was recorded, which can secure the safety of the original work and prove an efficient and economic way to protect the IP for a huge number of contents," said Huang Qinghua, vice-president of the listed Xiamen Anne Corp, at a copyright summit in Shenzhen on Saturday.

The company is among China's first group that have applied blockchain technology into copyright protection, which can verify the author when the creative work starts, grand authorization when the work is used and safeguard the rights when infringement was detected, Huang said.

"We are working with several companies to diversify and deepen the applications of blockchain technology in the field of copyright protection. It will be a new service mode," he noted.

The copyright summit was a sideline of the 14th China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair, which was held from May 10 to 14 in Shenzhen.

Li Jiangning, chairman of Shenzhen Copyright Service Center Co, said copyright protection is the core to the development of cultural industry, which has been one of the pillar industries of Shenzhen.

Official figures show that in 2017, the added value of Shenzhen's cultural and creative industry increased by 14.5 percent to 224.3 billion yuan ($35.2 billion), accounting for nearly 10 percent of the city's gross domestic product.

The figures also indicate that the courts in Shenzhen settled nearly 28,000 IP-related cases last year, accounting for 12.3 percent of the country's total.

Luohu district of Shenzhen has set a goal to build a national copyright trading center in the near future and to become a national model for copyright.

It also kicked off the preparation for the IP industry alliance of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and for the IP industry association of Luohu during the summit.

According to government officials, the alliance will improve the communication between companies and the government to boost competitiveness.

It will also strengthen the exchanges with foreign peers, participate in the stipulation of international IP industry rules and standards, improve the awareness of IP protection, nurture professionals and promote the IP operation market.

The Luohu district government has set up a copyright registration center with the Copyright Protection Center of China since last July, which provides the registration, trading and rights protection of IP-related issues for companies in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.

Before its establishment, companies had to go to Beijing, capital of China, to fulfill the IP registration.

According to official statistics, the registration of copyright rose from 50 cases a month at the beginning to more than 1,000 now.

chenhong@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 05/17/2018 page17)