Project Description

Since 1978, the EU and China have had bilateral agreements in the form of ‘Trade and Co operation agreements’. These were initiated to broaden EU China relations by supporting China’s transition process and sustaining its economic and social reforms. Eleven research funding organisations from 6 European countries and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences from China issued a Call for Proposal under the co-Reach Network. The call was intended to support European and Chinese scientists to explore future scientific cooperation in the field of the social sciences and to undertake small research projects. This network is intended to create coherence and synergy in Europe's S&T relations with China by promoting the co-ordination of China related policies and associated research funding programmes of individual European countries, and integrating these efforts with those of other multi-lateral European initiatives, including the programmes and agreements of the European Commission. On 10 December 2008 the full proposal submission phase in the CO-REACH Pilot call in social science research was closed. More than 80 Sino-European research networks submitted a full proposal. Selected among the proposals was the project entitled “Intellectual Property Rights in the New Media”. The research will be conducted by leading researchers from China, Germany, Netherlands, Austria and the United Kingdom. The project will conduct an in-depth research and clarification on a number of issues involving the scope and rights in the digital networked environment. The project will seek to contribute towards identification and resolution of the most important issues relating to the application and enforcement of intellectual property rights within an on-line context.

The aims of this collaboration are:

Capacity-building for finding adequate solutions to upcoming regulatory questions
Enhancement of knowledge on issues of copyright law, regulatory choice and methods of comparative research
Establishment of links for a sustainable research cooperation

The collaborating partners are driven by a common desire:

To develop combinations of legal and non-legal activities for China and Europe in order to improve the protection of copyrights and appreciation of authorship.
To discuss how to achieve a balance between consumer protection and right protection.
To identify ways of improving consumer awareness about online copyright issues.
To raise awareness on self-regulatory solutions for copyright-related policy challenges.
To assist in strengthening EU-China cooperation and suggest a common aim of building up global strategies.