Ambassador's IPR Roundtable Focuses on Copyright Protection in China

On April 24, the US Embassy in Beijing hosted the 2015 Ambassador's Intellectual Property Rights Roundtable with a theme of "Copyright in the Global Digital Community," bringing together U.S. and Chinese government, academic and business leaders to discuss IPR issues. The Roundtable, coinciding with World IP Day, focused on the need for continued cooperation between the U.S. and Chinese governments and industry to strengthen copyright protection and drive and support innovation and growth.

The Roundtable highlighted China's current efforts to amend its Copyright Law, and featured three panels:

• "The Importance of Copyright to Tomorrow's Creators" which evaluated the contribution of copyright intensive industries to the economy and how copyright incentivizes creativity and innovation
• "Technology Advancement and the Copyright Regime of the 21st Century" discussing how copyright should keep pace with and support an innovative software industry
• "Copyright's Support for Creative Media" focusing on the challenges for the film, music, publishing and TV industries in supporting creativity

The U.S. Ambassador to China, Max Baucus, presided over the Roundtable and provided opening remarks. Carl Schonander of the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) spoke on the importance of copyright to IP-intensive industries and the overall contribution that those industries make to the global economy.  (See Carl's blog post here.)