Better legal protection needed for IP: Lawyers

Intellectual property and legal professionals said over the past weekend that China should make more effort to improve IP-related laws and solve IP cases with a more open mind, aiming to satisfy increasing legal demand in the rapidly developing internet era.

"With the fast developments of the internet, a number of new-type IP cases have been springing up, such as disputes caused by WeChat and online games, which also have raised higher requirements for IP legal protectors," said Liu Xiaochun, executive director of the Internet and Law Center at China Youth University of Political Studies.

She made the comment during an IP protection summit held in Shanghai on Saturday, suggesting the country's law professionals follow up the new changes brought by the internet and solve related disputes with a more open mind.

"For example, online novels now are very popular with the public, but the copyright protection for such works, I think, is different from that for traditional ones," she said. "Meanwhile, how to identify authors when the works are spreading fast online also is a big difficulty for us."

IP disputes brought by artificial intelligence and inventions also are challenging the legal industry, as the current laws cannot make a decision on how to solve them, she added.

Du Ying, a law professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics, agreed with her. She confirmed that it's difficult for IP laws to catch up with the fast development of the internet and that the gap is becoming big.

"We are being pushed forward to figure out new legal ways to solve disputes brought by the new things, or the new technology needs us to have new legal thoughts instead of traditional minds," she added.

In addition to increasing IP protection, experts also called on the country to pay attention to the problems brought by big data.

Liu Xiaohai, an IP professor at Tongji University in Shanghai, and Li Shujuan, a member of the IP committee of the Shanghai Bar Association, suggested the government manage and protect data through legislation.

"We need more legal protection for data of individuals and enterprises, as it is a must on our way to implement technological innovation," Liu added.