In order to implement the spirit of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, as well as encourage Chinese software enterprises to go global and develop in participating countries of the Belt and Road, the China-Thailand Software Copyright Cooperation Forum co-hosted by the National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC) and the Department of Intellectual Property of Thailand (DIP) was held on the 9th in Bangkok, Thailand. Representatives from DIP, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the National Government Offices Administration and Chinese software companies, including Jinshan Office Software Co., Ltd., attended the forum, and shared their respective experience in software copyright protection with Thai peers.

Since the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed, intellectual property has become an important factor for countries along the Belt and Road to promote transformation and upgrade, as well as economic and social development. With the advancement of the Belt and Road Initiative, the Chinese government encourages Chinese software companies with technologies and strength to go global, and share their efforts and experience in terms of software copyright with participating countries.

Yu Cike, Director General of Copyright Department of NCAC, said that the Chinese government was vigorously promoting the implementation of the strategy “China Manufacturing 2025” and put forward the Belt and Road Initiative, which was highly consistent with the economic strategy “Thailand 4.0” and the Eastern Economic Corridor pursued by the Thailand government. It provided a good opportunity for the two countries to carry out cooperation in the high and new technology industry. In this process, the role of intellectual property in promoting innovation-driven development became increasingly prominent. Both China and Thailand attached great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights and maintained good exchange and cooperation relations for a long time. Both China and Thailand entered a normalized and institutionalized stage in terms of copyright exchange and cooperation.

Thai government representatives said that the Thailand government put forward the strategy “Thailand 4.0” last year, placing scientific and technological innovation as a new engine of development. In order to implement the “Thailand 4.0” program, DIP drafted the IP Blueprint, which stipulated the long-term plan for 2016-2036. In order to give enterprises with development potential more opportunities, the Thai Ministry of Commerce also established an innovation-driven center for enterprises’ intellectual property rights in February this year, hoping to achieve enterprises’ development and upgrade strategies through intellectual property patents, new technologies and innovation. The position and attitude of the Thailand government towards intellectual property rights coincided with those of the Chinese government, which were the biggest driving force of the forum.

With the further advancement of the Belt and Road Initiative and the active deployment of the “Thailand 4.0” strategy, the cooperation between China and Thailand in the field of intellectual property rights would be further deepened, which would help deepen the bilateral economic, trade, scientific and technological exchange and achieve common development, as well as help China and the participating countries of the Belt and Road optimize cooperation in the field of intellectual property rights, in order to deepen cultural, scientific and technological exchange.

The Chinese government attaches great importance to software copyright protection. Over the past 30 years since the reform and opening up, China has established a comprehensive copyright law system in line with common international rules, and has made great achievements in terms of copyright creation, application, protection, management and service. Remarkable achievements have also been made in the promotion of software copyright protection: by the end of 2013, Chinese government at all levels had used copyrighted software, and enterprises had made positive progress in using copyrighted software, among which, central enterprises and large and medium-sized financial institutions basically used copyrighted software. The demonstration effect of using copyrighted software was obvious. In 2016, the number of China’s software copyright registration exceeded 400,000, revenues in the software industry totaled 4.9 trillion yuan, and a large number of high-level software companies emerged.

At the forum, China Jinshan Office Software, ZWSOFT, Emindsoft and other software companies signed investment and cooperation agreements with Thai software companies.

Source: people.cn, Bangkok  

Update: June 10, 2017