The WIPO Diplomatic Conference on the Protection of Audiovisual Performances was held in Beijing on June 20. Chinese State Counselor Liu Yandong joined WIPO Director General Francis Gurry at the opening ceremony and delivered a keynote speech. "Strengthening the protection of authors' right and providing a clearer protection way and legal basis for the communication and using of audiovisual performances across border is a new development of IPR protection "said Liu Yandong.

"Facing the S&T development and knowledge dissemination across world, it is a common responsibility for international community to bolster IPR creation, application, protection and management, "Liu underlined the importance of IPR. She put forward four-point proposals, the first is attaches great importance to IPR protection. The second is to show sufficient respect for the specific circumstances of various nations and build a balance and effective international IPR protection system. The third is to deepen cooperation to promote the overall development of IPR protection. The fourth is to expand participation and increase the public awareness of IPR protection.

Mr. Gurry said the Diplomatic Conference represents a success of the multilateral cooperation, in particular in the field of IP law revising and making. "Actors and audiovisual performers are fundamental to our capacity to experience the art that an author or composer has created," Mr. Gurry said. "Their performances are intrinsically worthy of protection." Gurry said the digital environment offers risk for audiovisual performances. WIPO will remedy a widely perceived injustice of the unequal treatment of audiovisual performances, compared to musical performances, thus promote a sound development of audiovisual performances in digital environment. The conference was co-hosted by WIPO, National Copyright Administration and the People's Government of Beijing. It boasts the first diplomatic conference of its kind of WIPO in 12 years, which is one with milestone significance in promoting culture creative industry via copyright protection and facilitating international cooperation. 154 member states of WIPO and 700 delegates from 49 international organizations joined the opening ceremony.

(China IP News)