On June 13, China Textile City Printed Fabric Industrial Association held a seminar on protecting copyright through "self-regulating industry, safeguarding the right by innovation". The relevant responsible persons of the State Copyright Administration Bureau, Zhejiang Provincial Copyright Administration Bureau and Jiangsu Provincial Copyright Administration Bureau discussed on how to implement the copyright protection with the relevant persons of our county. Tang Zhaozhi, director of the State Copyright Protection Center Office and director of Law Department expressed, "Safeguarding the right is the spontaneous behavior of the industry. It is feasible to supervise and protect by the industry and companies' propaganda about the state law and regulation and moral rules including the industrial rules and regulations."
Patterns were infringed by the piracy
Innovator's Pain
A good pattern, whether it is for apparel fabric or for home textile fabric, will bring a large sale and have a long-term life circle. However, as the pattern is reproduced illegally, the price falls down quickly, and the quality declines sharply.
Last year, during Beijing Olympic Games, one business household in China Textile City developed a pattern of the water cube costing 250000 yuan. In order to protect against the illegal pattern reproduction, the business operator dared not to sell the products openly, only for orders. To an order for 10000 meters, the unit price was 32 yuan/m. However, the sales price plummeted all the way soon. Two months later, the market price fell to 20 yuan/m.
"Buyers take the patterns and search for sellers who can quote a cheap price. Business households find companies to process the products according to the patterns. But processing companies manufacture and sell the products secretly, which seriously hurt the innovator's enthusiasm." Lu Shibiao, director of printed fabric industrial association said, "However, most business operators do the business not obeying the rules, and lots of them reach the agreement informally, so safeguarding the rights become very difficult in the later period. To protect copyright need our participation by complying with the rules."
Not long ago, one business operator from Anhui in China Textile City found that a business operator from Liaoning sold the same pattern as his in the market. After the secret investigation, the pattern was revealed from a Shandong Weifang corporation which process their products. "In the same chamber of commerce, as the companies are very familiar with each other, if a company sells a kind of product, other company will not sell it----it has become the latent rule. But now the case is related with two chambers of commerce, the things happened in Shandong province, so the coordination will become a little difficult." The responsible person of a chamber of commerce in China Textile City told to the reporter. Such things sometimes happen, hard to tackle. Sometimes it even need a strong power to cope with.
Printed fabric industrial association took the lead
Do a good job from the root
In April last year, led by Zhang Wenzheng dealing in printed fabrics, over ten big printed fabric companies in our county established China Textile City Printed Fabric Industrial Association. The original purpose of the establishment is to protect the copyright of printed fabrics. Lu Shibiao, the former director of management committee of Nangont Zhigao Market had rich experience in protecting copyright, so he was invited by the association. The business operators can join the association on their own will, but every member should sign the letter of commitment on complying with <
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"We hope to do something for copyright protection. One is for our own benefits, the other is for China Textile City to change the bad behavior of copying patterns illegally. After exploring in the previous period, we have found that protecting the right through the self-discipline is worth trying." the relevant responsible person of printed fabric industrial association told to the reporter. Since the establishment, owing to the good effects on copyright protection, more and more business operators want to join the association now. The association members has expanded to 73 from the initial above 10, now another 40 business operators are applying for it.
Keqiao and Nantong made an alliance
Protect Innovative Designs though in Different Regions
After establishment, the association and Nantong counterpart made the anti-piracy alliance. The business operators in the two cities can find the agents in the counter-market to sign the contracts on transferring the copyrights and having the right to use the contract, as well as selling products and safeguarding the rights. This method not only effectively prevents from the infringement occurring in different areas before, but also shows the feasibility of using the non-government force to protect intellectual property right. Now, Keqiao and Nantong get the mutual benefits in the aspects of innovation, quality, printing and dyeing, sales regions and groups.
On April 3, this year, the three provinces Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai signed an agreement on protecting copyrights in Yangtze River Delta region, including 10 aspects such as registering in other place, collecting the evidence by the commission, sharing information. In order to make the market better and stronger, we should regulate the market competition and fight against the piracy. Lu Xingsheng of Jiangsu Provincial Copyright Administration Bureau said, If Keqiao market finds the illegally-reproduced goods sold in Nantong market, we will investigate and punish the sellers without mercy. This is the common strategic goal of Yangtze River Delta region to make the R&D and marketing of textile industrial chain stronger through the protective method so as to let our brands enter the international market.
"Yangtze River Delta Agreement" is to self-discipline printed fabric industry based on legal regulations. From the narrow regional industrial self-discipline in Keqiao to the mediation in different regions through the industrial association, the industrial self-discipline will go smoothly.
Why the industrial self-discipline can be carried out successfully in Nantong and Keqiao is the understanding and support from the two governments and the industrial circle. The relevant responsible person told the reporter that in face of the infringement in Shangdong, Beijing, Liaoning and other places, they had no feasible method to deal with it, so they hoped to get the support from the counterpart government by reporting to the State Copyright Administration Bureau.
Protect Copyright by Industrial Self-discipline
Effective Ways at this Stage
Since the establishment, printed fabric association has announced the objective that is self-innovation, self-discipline and safeguard rights, harmonious undertaking and stable development . The president Zhang Wenzheng said, the industrial self-discipline and the self-innovation acted like a twin. The industrial self-discipline and copyright protection was for a better innovation, meanwhile, to better protect copyright needs to upgrade the innovative capability further. Therefore, the association introduced professional design talents from Nantong Textile Institute and had over 2000 designs by improvement and independent innovation, member s innovative capability was enhanced constantly, the registration numbers increased largely.
Our county s innovative industry service center actively introduced innovative design companies for cultivating local designers and improving company s capability of independent innovation. At present, there have over 10 innovative design companies and designer studio reaching the agreement with the center, and Shaoxing Arts and Sciences College, the center also got the preliminary agreement with Zhejiang Sci-Tech University and Nantong Textile Vocational Technology College on establishing textile university cooperative base. By cultivating enterprise s capability of independent innovation, the vicious competition arisen from the piracy can be stopped so that enterprises will develop healthily.
Xu Chao, the head of copyright division of the State Copyright Administration Bureau said, to serve the economy, the market was the measure of the test. The best way to protect copyrights is to appeal to the laws, however, at this stage, it is unrealistic to rely on the power of the judiciary, particularly the textile industry having strict requirement on the innovation, so the industrial self-discipline is a good protective method by now.
As it is known, General Chamber of Commerce of the county will set the industrial self-discipline of printed fabric association as the model and deeply promote the work of copyright protection to 19 major chambers of commerce from one area to all areas.
