Following a final round of competition on the evening of April 22, Beihang University was crowned champion in the third Epson Cup Intellectual Property Rights Knowledge Tournament for Beijing college students.

Peking University and the Beijing Institute of Technology tied for second place. Other teams that made it to the final round were Beijing Normal University, Minzu University of China and China University of Political Science and Law.

Rather than a series of tests that required recitation of legal terms, the contest focused on the application of laws, with most questions based on specific cases.

Video depictions

There were also tests that asked competitors to answer questions based on the issues raised in a series of video clips.

An audience of about 300 attended the event, most of them schoolmates of competitors on stage.

Teams often disputed each other over the correct answer and technicalities, but judges approved because "this exactly reflects how law students value the procedure and how precise they are", said Li Xiaowu, a judge from Tsinghua University School of Law.

"These are virtues in a future lawyer," Li said in speech at the conclusion of the contest.

As the sponsor of the event, Japanese printer company Epson views China as one of the most promising markets in all developing countries, said Takashi Yamaguchi, general manager of Epson China's intellectual property office.

"Although China is paying more attention to the protection of intellectual property rights, it still lacks experience," Yamaguchi said. "Japan has more experience and lessons to share with China."

"College students are future nation builders," he said. "By improving their understanding of intellectual property protection, we want to do something to popularize IPR awareness nationwide."

Everyday life

"Intellectual property is not far from our everyday life," said Zhao Qishan, another judge from Shanghai University. "When you graduate from college, you'll become a lawyer, a judge, a government official or a corporate executive. But no matter what you do, you may meet intellectual property issues."

"Then you'll remember this contest, which encourages you to seek out solutions in the law," Zhao said.

Tournament champion Beihang University is generally known as a leading national university in engineering science and technology, especially in aeronautical engineering, but the university has clearly paid close attention to intellectual property rights education.

"There are many teachers and researchers in our university who have patented inventions and technologies," said Cheng Yanru, a member of the Beihang team and a graduate student of law. "We have to be well acquainted with laws to protect those innovations. Lessons are given to both undergraduates and graduate students."

"We harvested quite a lot in the contest," her partner Ma Qianli added. "At the very least we have a better understanding of the laws' specifics."

In addition, the contest was more about the capacity for analysis, said Liu Dan from the Peking University team.

"The contest, as well as the preparation work, will for sure be greatly helpful to my future study and work," Liu said. "It is a very good platform."

"It's a pity that we just got the second place, but was fair play after all," he added.

(Source: China Daily)