China's IPR protection system developing rapidly

China has made remarkable progress in intellectual property rights protection in recent years, a forum heard on Friday.

Shanghai has moved up from 35th in 2013 to 12th in the top 100 science and technology clusters in the 2021 Global Innovation Index issued by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

It marked a rise for nine consecutive years.

China's intellectual property rights law and regulations system and protection system have kept improving in recent years with enhanced protection efforts, said Gao Yan, head of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

Gao was speaking at the Intellectual Property Protection and Business Environment Optimization parallel session.

The awareness of IPR protection has been significantly raised as well, said Gao.

Last year, China's copyright ownership registration amounted to more than 5.03 million and the nation's copyright industry value added surpassed 7.3 trillion yuan (US$1.14 trillion) in 2019, accounting for 7.39 percent of GDP.

"China's IPR protection system has been developing rapidly over the past 40 years," said Han Xiucheng, former director and researcher of the Intellectual Property Development Research Center of China National Intellectual Property Administration, during the forum.

"IPR protection spurs and guarantees high-level innovation and high-quality development," said Han.

"Strict protection and innovation of IPR and the creation of a supreme business environment will stimulate the innovation vitality of social subjects, thus strengthening the nation's core competitiveness."

The implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy has become the theme of the times.

The innovative development needs a sound business environment that requires institutional support and legal safeguards for intellectual property protection, experts said.

The forum focused on the efforts and achievements of China in enhancing intellectual property protection and optimizing the business environment, strengthening the confidence of enterprises from various countries in trade and investment cooperation with China. This reflects China's responsibility as a major country to build a fair, transparent and open business environment.

Internet copyright was a hot topic.

"Big progress has been made in the area in China," said Gong Yu, founder and CEO of iQIYI. "Membership service has become the biggest source of income for online video streaming industry.

"Short video platforms were once hotbeds of piracy and infringement of IPR, and the situation has been improved under the combined efforts of authorities and companies."

IQIYI recorded more than 12,000 pieces of IPR piracy and infringement daily on average, and 75 percent came from short video platforms when a popular drama was screened on the platform in February.

The figure dropped to 11,000 after three episodes of a popular reality show was screened recently, and the percentage of short video platforms had decreased to about 30 percent.