Landmark China-U.K. IP agreement reached

By Sarah Bellemare
0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, September 3, 2014
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In an event marking the culmination of over a year of collaboration, officials from China and the United Kingdom signed an official agreement in Beijing on Sept. 2, 2014, opening up channels for more efficient bilateral copyright protection and enforcement.

The British Minister for Intellectual Property and the Minister of the National Copyright Administration of China exchange gifts at the signing of a China-U.K. intellectual property agreement.

The British Minister for Intellectual Property and the Minister of the National Copyright Administration of China exchange gifts at the signing of a China-U.K. intellectual property agreement.

Jointly signed by Zhang Hongbo, executive deputy director-general of the China Written Works Copyright Society, and Kevin Fitzgerald, chief executive of the United Kingdom’s Copyright Licensing Agency, the agreement is a landmark in the development of intellectual property protection in China. Tuesday’s signing is the first time that the CWWCS has made an official agreement with an organization from another country.

Vice Minister of the National Copyright Administration of China, Yan Xiaohong, gave the opening remarks for the event. The agreement, which according to Fitzgerald “would not have been possible without the significant progress of copyright law in China,” allows CWWCS members to license their works in the U.K. through the CLA. Zhang stated that the agreement would also extend international copyright protection to Chinese periodicals for the first time.

The CWWCS was established by the National Copyright Administration of China in late 2008. It is the only authorized collective copyright management organization for written works in China, and it has over 7,000 author members, according to the International Federation of Reproductive Rights Organizations. In 2009, the CWWCS filed a lawsuit against Google over the internet behemoth’s unauthorized reproduction of works by Chinese authors for the Google Books service, which resulted in an official apology and restitution plan from Google.

In a panel discussion following the official signing ceremony, Baroness Lucy Jeanne Neville-Rolfe, the U.K’s minister for intellectual property, echoed the sentiments of previous speakers in emphasizing the economic importance of copyright law and a system of copyright enforcement. Output from creative industries accounts for about 10 percent of the United Kingdom’s exports and 5.5 percent of China’s overall economic growth, according to Neville-Rolfe.

Fellow panelists Richard Mollet, chief executive officer of the United Kingdom’s Publishers Association, and Jo Lusby, managing director of Penguin Books China, spoke enthusiastically about their hopes to introduce more Chinese works to British readers. Lusby and Mollet also praised the author-friendly remuneration and rights protection systems of many of China’s booming digital publishing platforms. Though both panelists admitted that the expansion of digital and e-book markets in the United Kingdom and in China present significant challenges to traditional publishers, both were confident that this expansion ultimately offers even more opportunities for growth.

All the speakers at the event also stressed the need to increase education about copyrights and, in Neville-Rolfe’s words, the “damage caused by copyright infringement.” Neville-Rolfe expressed her hope that education about respect for copyrights and the creative industries they foster can become a part of “social fabric,” both in the United Kingdom and in China.

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