Keynote Speaker: Zhang Qin
Discussants: Wu Weiguang, Li Zuming, Li Mingde

Mr. Zhang takes intellectual property as a kind of property from the economy angle. He pointed out that intellectual property is a subset of information property. The characters of intellectual property and information property are nearly the same because of the nature of knowledge is determined by the nature of information.

His lecture indicates that information is not scarce and exclusive so it is a kind of public goods. Take the prospective of marginal utility, information don't have the attribute of property. So the law of intellectual property protection doesn't mean to protect information but a kind of chartered right whose principle can use and gets benefits from the possession of it.

Specifically, if intellectual property protection happens in the process of research and development, what corresponding is patent and copy right; if intellectual property protection happens in the stage of marketing, what corresponding is brand and trade mark. Most of the profit of a commodity is distributed by R&D sector. The profit earned by manufacture sector that developing countries engaged in is not more than 5%.

In the end, Mr. Zhang distinguished assets and property. He identified the conception of resources, wealth, property, commodity, labor and chartered rights also.

January 21th, 2011