Global intellectual property body praises China's contributions

China's enhanced awareness of intellectual property protection as well as its innovation output in science and technology over the past few years have been praised by Daren Tang, director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization.

"China's innovation is not just in culture and traditional fields, but increasingly also in science and technology," Tang told China Daily in an exclusive interview while attending the Third Belt and Road High-level Conference on Intellectual Property in Beijing on Wednesday.

He lauded China's innovation achievements after this year's WIPO Global Innovation Index recently showed that China now leads the world with 26 scientific and technological clusters in the top 100.

"The ranking shows that China has paid a lot of attention to research and development, to scientific and industrial innovation," Tang said. "The trend, I think, is set to continue."

He gave a thumb-up to China's use of science and technology to grow the economy, the combination of digital and industrial innovation, and its seriousness to IP rights over many years, adding that China's experience can be a model for others countries.

"Ideas can change the world. China's contribution to the IP world is the idea that a developing country or an emerging economy can shape the global IP ecosystem," he said.

Over the past 50 years, China's IP applications at home and abroad have both grown rapidly.

China is one of countries that celebrate the power of IP every year on April 26, which is World Intellectual Property Day, and it has also been actively involved in WIPO negotiations, according to him.

"Chinese companies, for instance, are increasingly active on WIPO Green, an online platform for technology management, by offering their own technologies and offering to help deploy these technologies," Tang said. "I think this way we can show the world that IP is not just to address local challenges or national challenges, but also global challenges." 

He highlighted the importance of partnership and collaboration in innovation, adding that initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative can serve as a bridge to connect countries.

He took the ongoing conference as a key of contributing to global dialogue on IP, "as many bigger trends that we see, such as digital innovation and green technologies, require dialogue among heads of IP administrators worldwide, and the conference provides the opportunity to do so."

Considering many developing countries face similar challenges in IP field, Tang added that the conference is also a good platform to bring them together to meet, share best practices, exchange ideas and renew friendship.

In his view, a big challenge for China and also many other countries now is how to translate scientific achievements into actual products and services, "or how to optimize their skills to use IP, such as trademarks, designs and geographical indications, to bring the ideas to the market."

Expressing WIPO's strong will in partnership with China and other countries, he said its academy can provide training on both technical IP knowledge and practical IP skills.

"IP is not an end itself, but is a means to an end, and the end is jobs, investments, business growth, and ultimately for economic, social and cultural development," Tang added.