Domestic interest and research on the culture of intellectual property has been in place for almost a decade. According to a column in the chinese journal of intellectual property rights of 20 june 2006, “on 30 september 2005, the chinese journal of intellectual property published mr. Mavino's article “on culture and intellectual property culture”, which first introduced the concept of “intellectual property culture” in the domestic media, proposing the idea that `the building of a culture of intellectual property rights should be an important component of the development of intellectual property rights, as well as the foundation work for the implementation of intellectual property strategy'”. In fact, the author has published an academic paper on intellectual property culture in academic journals. In the context of the definition of culture and the concept of intellectual property, the author defines the culture of intellectual property: the culture of intellectual property is the sum of the spiritual phenomena that affect intellectual property and related matters that arise in human beings in the context of intellectual property and its related activities, primarily the perception, attitudes, beliefs, values and modes of behaviour relating to intellectual property and related matters。
Functions of intellectual property culture
In addition to the basic functions of culture, an intellectual property culture should have three additional functions。
(1) inducing curiosity. Human curiosity is an important source of innovation. One of the important paths to intellectual property acquisition is research for curiosity, invention for research, patent for invention。
(2) incentivizing the mind for profit. The essence of intellectual property rights is a means of pursuing interests. There can be no intellectual property regime without competing economic interests. The result of the culture of intellectual property is not to make everyone a gentle, unchallenged “governer”; rather, it should enhance people's ability to compete in the market。
(3) generating honesty. A culture of intellectual property can inspire people's self-interest, but it is not an argument for blackmail, ignorance or profit. It is precisely in order to prevent them that the intellectual property culture is guided by rules based on good faith and the legitimate pursuit of interests。
The essence of an intellectual property culture
As has been the result of the above discussion of the nature of culture, the culture of intellectual property is manifested externally in the social climate in which intellectual property is perceived, enjoyed, felt, etc., but essentially in the sense of intellectual property in this society. Intellectual property awareness refers to fundamental values about intellectual property and its related matters. The simplest example is that if an enterprise considers iprs to be the lifeline of an enterprise, it attaches particular importance to intellectual property work and can learn how to use an intellectual property regime to improve the core competitiveness of an enterprise; on the contrary, if the enterprise considers iprs to be less relevant to enterprise development, it necessarily ignores intellectual property work。
Understanding the concerns of intellectual property culture
(1) do not confuse intellectual property rights with intellectual property culture. Of course, intellectual property rights themselves often mirror culture, such as trademarks, industrial design, and aesthetics, which are a culture; yet intellectual property rights are not a culture per se, but a mere vehicle of culture. The core term of “culture of intellectual property” is “culture” and “intellectual property” is a qualifier of that culture, revealing its attributes。
(2) proper understanding of the relationship between intellectual property and intellectual property culture. If intellectual property is seen as a thing, the intellectual property culture is the external environment that influences the development of the subject, that is, the relationship between intellectual property and intellectual property culture, and its external environment。
(3) the development of an intellectual property culture requires a favourable environment. The culture of intellectual property, on the one hand, as the outer environment of intellectual property rights, and on the other hand, is surrounded by cultures (such as socio-cultural) more widely. Thus, the creation of a sound intellectual property culture depends not only on the construction of the intellectual property system in its lower concept, but also on the prevailing concept of the cultural environment in all aspects of society。
(4) building a culture of intellectual property is a long historical process. This is determined by the customary nature of culture itself, which cannot be formed overnight. Therefore, it cannot be expected that the culture of intellectual property rights will be successfully nurtured in the short term by means of executive orders, strong push and formalism。
