Congratulations on the successful organization of the Legal Empowerment of Cultural and Creative Value Theme Forum 2021
10.15-10.21 | 2021 Hainan International Cultural and Creative Week
The “2021 Legal Empowerment for Cultural and Creative Value” themed forum, co-organized by GoldenGate Lawyers and the Cultural and Entertainment Legal Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, was successfully held on October 16, 2021 at the Sanya Bay Tianya Haijiao Mangrove International Convention and Exhibition Center in Sanya, Hainan Province. This year’s Hainan International Cultural and Creative Week, themed “Resonance and Symbiosis”, included a main forum, 28 industry-specific forums across four domains—cultural tourism, cultural creativity, rural revitalization, and design—as well as over 100 co-creation activities. The Week aimed to discuss the challenges and opportunities of the current era of cultural creativity and to create a new ecosystem for industrial development.
Legal Empowerment for Cultural and Creative Value Theme Forum
01 Guests’ Excellent Presentations
Mr. Yuhui Wu
Executive Vice President, Beijing Culture and Entertainment Law Society
Deputy Director and Researcher, Cultural and Entertainment Legal Research Center, China University of Political Science and Law
Protection of Intellectual Property (IP) cannot be achieved without the supervision and support of judicial and administrative authorities. As content producers, cultural and creative industry professionals need to collaborate with all stakeholders to actively explore new models of authorization, fully leveraging the benefits of intellectual property rights to maximize the social value of cultural and creative works. This is an issue that must be considered for the long-term, sustainable development of the cultural and creative industry.
Mr. Haiqiu Lin
Director of Full Derivative Operations for the IP “National Treasure”
Marketing Director of Beijing Wuxitang Technology Co., Ltd.
Wuxitang has already undertaken collaborations across multiple categories both domestically and internationally, incorporating rich content from element extraction to design packaging. Many young brands want to use cultural and museum IPs for their 2D image libraries or product identities, while also aiming to modernize elements from historical artifacts to appeal to a younger audience. Therefore, based on market demand, Wuxitang has integrated a wide range of expert and artist resources to adapt to younger customers by applying these elements in various scenes and packaging designs.
Ms. Sunny Guo
Secretary-General of the Brand Protection and IP Licensing Law Specialized Committee of the Beijing Cultural and Entertainment Law Association
Partner of Beijing GoldenGate Intellectual Property Agency Co., Ltd.
Focusing on the three keywords of rural revitalization, local culture, and legal regulation, Ms. Guo shared insights from a legal perspective on how to incorporate local culture through brands, geographical indications, and intangible cultural heritage. She emphasized the importance of comprehensively applying brand principles in trademark registration, usage, licensing, and enforcement. At the same time, she highlighted the need to integrate geographical indication protection with rural revitalization and targeted poverty alleviation efforts to create cultural and tourism IPs. In the context of intangible cultural heritage, Ms. Guo stressed the need to protect the private rights of inheritors and discussed issues to consider during the process of re-creating intangible cultural heritage. Finally, she expressed a strong commitment to becoming part of the industry community as a legal professional and a willingness to contribute to rural revitalization efforts.
Mr. Yiguang Chen
Director, Aerospace Cultural and Creative Center, China Aerospace Construction Group Co.
Deputy Secretary General, Youth Working Committee on Space Culture Communication, China Science and Technology Press Association
China’s space-themed cultural creativity IP may have started late, but it has become a world-class IP in terms of national mainstream guidance as well as market and societal influence. President Xi Jinping has repeatedly mentioned the Chinese Dream and the space dream, advocating for the construction of a powerful spacefaring nation. Currently, the development of space-themed cultural creativity primarily revolves around three business directions: space science popularization and education, the space cultural creativity industry, and a full-industry-chain layout in the space tourism sector.
Mr. Zhenjian Chen
Deputy Director of the Brand Protection and IP Licensing Law Specialized Committee of Beijing Culture and Entertainment Law Society
Founder of the Upper Right Corner Intellectual Property Protection Platform
The establishment of the Upper Right Corner IP Protection Platform aims to enhance the value of innovation. We aspire for our platform to empower all creators both in China and globally, ensuring them reap greater positive returns. We have forged close partnerships with approximately 500 companies, and over half of the key Ips from these firms have established relatively strong collaborative ties with us.
02 Round-table dialogues
Round table 1: The power of originality - when literature meets law
Ms. Lili Ma, Director, Project Cooperation Department, Beijing Culture and Entertainment Law Society
The new copyright law implemented in June 2021 strengthened the protection of rights related to music producers. Of course, no matter how meticulously laws are crafted, they cannot enforce themselves; numerous legal professionals are working very hard on behalf of original works and artists in the arts industry.
Mr. Hui Li, Founder of Miao Music Music Company (Weier Media)
In this era, music is no longer an independent industry but is integrated with the internet, television entertainment, and other sectors, becoming dependent on the development of these other industries. Therefore, how to distinctly define it in relation to these industries is a topic of discussion for our time.
Mr. Tim Meng, Managing Partner of GoldenGate Lawyers, Arbitrator of China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission
Through the case of “Hello Mr. Billionaire”, we can summarize an infringement comparison roadmap, which includes: determining whether a work is protected by copyright; establishing and developing the principle of access plus substantial similarity; for access, the plaintiff must prove that the relevant work was widely known or provide solid evidence rather than relying on speculation; for substantial similarity, both external and objective comparisons as well as internal and subjective analyses are required, while also excluding elements not protected by law, primarily commonplace expressions, during the comparison and analysis process. These principles are also fully demonstrated in numerous classic Hollywood legal precedents.
Furthermore, the vast majority of individual and small-scale cultural workers still face numerous challenges in protecting their rights, such as monopolies and control by large corporations, unfair contract terms, and frequent infringements of their creativity. One particularly noteworthy point is the paradox of creativity. I believe that creativity has little value unless it is disclosed, yet once disclosed, its value can be quickly released. In other words, creativity necessitates both market exposure and legal protection. In the coming period, there will be many challenges and legal cases that will shape a more balanced mechanism for interests and innovation.
Mr. Bing Ni, the godfather of Chinese electronic music, founder of PING PENG and Drum Rider, and Executive Vice General Manager of Taihe Large-scale Performances
Due to the pandemic, the stock market has been sluggish, resulting in a significant amount of capital flowing into upstream commodities. The music industry has experienced the same trend. When major platforms find it difficult to infringe, they start to encroach on content production. Independent musicians who wish to distribute their music are forced to sign unfair contracts.
Mr. Wei Peng, Director of “Youth Art 100”, President of Beijing Mingtai Culture and Art Company Limited, Deputy Director of Fine Arts Committee of Beijing Youth Art Development Promotion Association
There is a term often used in aesthetics to disguise acts of plagiarism, called appropriation, or specifically, collage appropriation. Artists may argue that their foundation stems from imitating the greats, adopting excellent styles, and then evolving their own unique style. Thus, in reality, a myriad of contradictions and elements are intertwined, making it challenging for artists to protect their rights.
Roundtable 2: “New IP licensing models under new business models”
Mr. Bin Shao, President, Beijing Sesan Environment Art Design Institute Co., Ltd.
Most people understand that the night-time economy is built on IP and storytelling. However, as a new business format, the night-time economy itself does not have high-profile IPs. Therefore, it often needs to seek authorized IPs or directly purchase IPs.
Ms. Dongmei Wang, Vice President of Beijing Culture and Entertainment Law Society, former General Counsel of Huayi Brothers
The initial stage of copyright protection is paramount, which is the most important aspect. Next comes the development of derivatives, which represents the blue ocean in the future.
Mr. Ning Zhang, Brand IP General Manager of Yushi Group
After all, the biggest landing of IP is to realize the cash, and the root of the cash is to make the IP become a kind of spiritual resonance, through the IP image can make your cooperative businessmen match you quickly.
At the core, the ultimate goal of IP development is monetization, and the foundation of monetization is to create a spiritual connection with the audience. Through the IP's image, your partner merchants can quickly align with you.
Ms. Shuqin Liu, Head of Legal Affairs of China Brands Group
We have clients who tend to establish a joint venture company, where the brand owner invests with its brand, while the channel partner leverages their operational strengths, allowing companies with advantages in operations, channels, or supply chains to manage the business.
Mr. Chao Ji, Equity Partner, Zhong Lun Law Firm
IP originated from law and has now evolved into a thriving IP property industry, deeply intertwined with law and evolving in harmony with it.
03 Unveiling Ceremony and Legal Product Launch Ceremony
During the forum, the Brand Protection and IP Licensing Law Specialized Committee held the unveiling ceremony for the “Cultural and Creative Industry Rights Work Committee” and presented appointment certificates to the committee chairman, expert advisors, and secretary-general.
The committee also launched a significant legal product, “100 Questions and Answers on IP Licensing Law”, profoundly embodying the concept of “Empowering Cultural and Creative Value with Law”.
“100 Questions and Answers on IP Licensing Law” comprehensively summarizes the common legal issues and risk management strategies for both licensors and licensees in IP licensing, providing valuable legal operational guidance for practitioners in the licensing industry.
