The EU-China Roundtable on Copyright Protection in the Digital Environment was held in Xi’an, the capital city of Shaanxi Province, on November 19, 2024. Hosts of the roundtable said that there is an urgent need for all stakeholders to brainstorm under the copyright protection framework and discuss issues such as the characteristics, attribution, infringement determination, and protection of the copyright of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated materials, so as to reach a global consensus.
The roundtable was co-hosted by the National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC), and the IP Key China of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).
Subsequent to the EU-China Intellectual Property Dialogue in 2004, China and EU jointly launched the IP Key China in 2018. The project aims to promote sustained exchanges and in-depth cooperation between the IP offices, chambers of commerce, and industry associations on both the Chinese and EU sides in order to jointly address new challenges in the IP field.
The hosts said further that at present, as the AI technology is evolving rapidly, and the generative AI technology represented by ChatGPT is constantly ushering in new scenarios, new forms, new modes, and new markets of AI applications, the technology brings both opportunities for social and economic development and new security hazards, risks and challenges to mankind. In the field of copyright, particularly, generative AI has significantly changed the way of content creation and transmission, with copyright used as one of the most fundamental resources. Therefore, there is an urgent need for all stakeholders to brainstorm under the copyright protection framework and discuss the characteristics, ownership, infringement determination, and protection of the copyright of AI-generated materials, so as to form a global consensus. The ultimate purpose is to better provide institutional support and endogenous impetus for the compliant application, healthy and sustainable development of AI technology while addressing the risks and problems encountered in traditional copyright protection.
In this regard, the NCAC explicitly stated that it values and embraces AI and adopts a positive and forward-thinking approach to the advent of AI. Moreover, it will study and supervise AI, improve relevant institutional design, explore and standardize the AI-related copyright rules. In the day-to-day supervision of AI, it will strengthen the monitoring of the dissemination of AI-generated content, attach importance to the complaints and reports related to the AI-generated content, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of copyright owners according to law. With respect to the exchange and sharing of AI technology, several countries have thus far worked out some facilitation measures. However, they have different attitudes toward whether AI products are copyrightable, how to regulate, supervise, and promote such products, and how to punish their infringers, among other things. Therefore, it is necessary for all countries to strengthen communication, so as to share AI achievements, promote the application of this new technology all over the world, and maintain the order of the global copyright market.
Gyta Berasnevičiūtė-Singh, project leader of the EUIPO’s IP Key China, said that AI is playing an increasingly significant role across the board, but the new technology is also bringing new challenges to judicial practice. In this vein, it is highly necessary for the international community to discuss the new topics concerned.
The event featured three key themes: recent developments in EU and Chinese copyright laws, international copyright management issues, and online copyright enforcement.