In the early days of drafting, the draft law was called Banquan. Once at the meeting, Liu Chuntian said half-jokingly that in the first 20-plus versions, the law had been called Banquan. How about changing the title into Zhuzuoquan this time? If it is deemed as nonsense and voted down, we still have time to change back and we can also keep a record. It turned out that this version with the title of Zhuzuoquan aroused very strong social response when soliciting opinions from all works of society. “When the law was named after Banquan, a lot of people thought it was related to publishing or something, so they did not care. However, when they saw the new version, many people finally understood it said that China would have a special law protecting the rights of authors.”

This change even caused a small joke. At an NPC session, a commissioner said: “This draft law on Zhuzuoquan was quite fine. Are there similar laws called Banquan? We can consider them at the same time!”

The title of Zhuzuoquan was thus maintained, but the differentiation was not harmonized. When the draft was submitted to the NPC Standing Committee for consideration, this problem was still under endless discussion. Professor Liu Chuntian recalls that Wang Hanbin, who presided over the legislation work then, asked the famous jurist Jiang Ping for advice: “This law is about to be adopted, but the title is still in the air. You are a true expert. Could you tell us the best name?” In order to be more prudent, Jiang Ping found Liu Chuntian for his advice. Liu Chuntian explained his reasons why the law should be named after Zhuzuoquan, and introduced the views of Zheng Chengsi as well.

Finally, the law was named Zhuzuoquan,which however, the Article 51 provides: “For the purposes of this Law, the term ‘zhuzuoquan’ equals ‘banquan’.” Professor Liu Chuntian believes that is a compromise provision.

“I am supporting the term Zhuzuoquan, but a law should not have two names. If Banquan was finally chosen, Zhuzuoquan should not be used any more. These two terms are likely to cause confusion. Law is not a divine book, so it should be simple, clear and exoteric instead of ambiguous. Legal document tends to be wordy and not as lively as literature. Why? It is because it should be decisive enough to avoid disputes in the end.”

“The Legislation we are talking about now is the most sophisticated. A tiny discrepancy may lead to a great error, which is of no exaggeration in the legislation field. Legislation is made for all the people of the world. Sima Qian once said that everyone in the world works for profit and chases after profit. Money is involved here and is the core is wealth. If property can be clearly defined in the law, then society will pay a great deal for it. Therefore, scholars must not indulge their personal loyalty. They should assume responsibility for the people.”

When talking about a scholar’s responsibility, Professor Liu Chuntian admitted that he himself had also made serious misjudgments when participating in the drafting work of the Copyright Law. At that time, Zheng Chengsi insisted that the article, “for acts of serious infringement, the related party shall bare criminal liability,” should be included. However, Liu Chuntian went against this article and cancelled it “successfully”. As piracy becomes increasingly rampant, he fully realized the importance of this article. A few years later, the complementary laws and regulations adopted the article with that focus.

Natural qualities of scholars

Professor Liu Chuntian has taken part in the drafting and amendment of the Patent Law, Trademark Law, Copyright Law, Anti-unfair Competition Law and other intellectual property laws. Professor Liu Chuntian has also given IP lectures for state leaders and attended international IP conferences as representative of the Chinese Government. As an expert consultant, he participated in the international negotiations for the WTO, provided advisory services for the Chinese working group on Sino-US IPR disputes, and played an important role in China’s IPR legal system.

Now, as the president of the Intellectual Property School, Professor Liu Chuntian is still busy with teaching and researching in the intellectual property field. He told the reporter that he recently focuses on preparing the Legal History of IP in China and participates in the amendment of Trademark Law.

At the end of this interview, the reporter asked Professor Liu Chuntian whether he has some biographical books for reference. He replied: “I am neither a politician nor entrepreneur. I am only a scholar, so I do not have such books.”

By Kevin Nie, China IP

(Translated by Li Yu)