A press conference for 2007 Cultural Heritage Day was sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage on the morning of May 21, 2007 in the Cultural Ministry. Zhou Heping, Vice-Minister of Culture, answered the relevant questions raised by the correspondents concerning the relationship between protection of non-material cultural heritage and IPR.

Zhou pointed out that protection for non-material cultural heritage is closely connected with IPR.  Amongst the non-material cultural heritage projects, a large number are created by the people in the process of their long-term production and living on the basis of their predecessors' experiences, thus shaping special-features of their own.  Therefore, IPR issue is involved in numerous projects.  Protection for non-material cultural heritage, whether in the sense of defining an inheritor or a project, is a recognition in itself of the skills and cultural tradition created by the inheritors.  Protection of the project itself is an important measure for IPR protection.  Sometimes, it requires the combination of the laws and regulations for IPR protection,  in order to ensure that protection will be proceeded gradually onto the road of scientificalness, standardization and legality and that the creation achievements be protected by law.