In Jingdezhen, the ceramic capital, September is the best season for the traditional firewood kiln. Compared with modern gas and electricity kilns, the firewood kiln is the closest to the traditional ceramic making method, and its finished products often bring an unexpected surprise. However, it is more costly and has higher technical requirements. Therefore, the opening day of firewood kiln is like festival celebration.
By cultural richness and ceramic industry chain completeness, Jingdezhen attracts over 30,000 young people from all over the country and 5,000 foreign artists to pursue their dreams. Such phenomenon is called Jingdezhen Drifter.
Taoxichuan Ceramic Art Avenue (hereinafter referred to as Taoxichuan) in Jingdezhen brings together 17,000 domestic and foreign "Jingdezhen Drifter" makers. In this passion and creativity driven block, copyright is well known and applied among more and more creators. Taoxichuan won the 2020 WIPO-NCAC Award for Copyright Utilization because of its excellent copyright work.
--Taoxichuan: the guardian of copyright protection
Walking on the bustling Avenue in Taoxichuan, you will find hundreds of stalls with products of greatly variant and distinctive styles. There, young artists always confidently introduce their artworks to passersby.
Launched in March 2016, Taoxichuan entrepreneurship and innovation platform has built an ecology chain of ceramic creativity, youth entrepreneurship, talent training, property rights protection and brand building, and it has taken shape and provided the young people with innovative ideas with a broad stage.
However, in the early stage due to the lack of awareness and knowledge of copyright protection, some creations were not well protected, and thus the act of plagiarism occurred from time to time.
Feng Jun, deputy secretary of the Party branch of Jingdezhen Towyi Cultural Development Co., Ltd. said in an interview that the products with originality is an important advantage of Taoxichuan. The act of plagiarism erodes the market and seriously harms the economic interests and creative enthusiasm of creators. Knowing the damage of copyright infringement and piracy, Taoxichuan implements the copyright working mechanism combining crackdown and prevention.
"Originality" is the unalterable indicator for makers to settle in Taoxichuan, and the makers' administration committee dispatches the appraisers to judge whether a product is original or not. Taoxichuan selects 24 makers as the administrators in each quarter for autonomous administration of all art creators.
Feng Jun added that these makers are quite familiar with the local market, and some administrators have piercing sights that they can identify whether the product is original and even "whether the applicator's academic diploma is false". Over the past four years, Taoxichuan conducted rectification and withdrawal of 22 stores and 46 makers due to copyright issues.
To safeguard the creators' rights and interests, Taoxichuan acts as the "guardian". After recognizing that copyright can be effectively protected by product registration, in light of makers' characteristics of strong innovation ability and fast product launch, Taoxichuan actively communicated with the provincial and municipal copyright authorities to set up an express channel of copyright declaration, and an urgent window for Taoxichuan makers to facilitate their registration.
Once the authentic product description, ownership warranty, copyright statement and draft submitted by a maker pass the review, the declaration process can be finished quickly and the certificate printed and issued immediately.
-- Deeply rooted copyright awareness by diversified publicity means
The art creators in Taoxichuan release tens of thousands of new products every year. The repeated and extensive publicity of copyright is of great significance to these scattered creators with urgent need of copyright protection. Before the access of makers and studios, the copyright staffs conduct the publicity of copyright knowledge and improve the awareness of copyright protection and application by interviews, workshops and sharing of typical cases.
Jiangxi Intellectual Property Rights Institute serves as the think tank in the partnership with Taoxichuan. When the copyright registration proliferated, they sent postgraduates to assist in product review, and organized a "PhD Team of Copyright" in publicity. Zhang Xiangzhi, vice president of School of Humanities and Social Sciencesof East China Jiaotong University and Executive Vice President of Jiangxi Intellectual Property Rights Institute said that the six-man "PhD Team of Copyright" informed the ceramic makers and artists of the value of copyright for ceramic innovation and entrepreneurship through professional and interesting publicity activities.
-- Stress on the role of copyright in cultural inheritance and innovation
Que Miqiu, director of Copyright Management Section of Publicity Department of Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee told the journalist that Taoxichuan attracts not only the nationwide or even worldwide markers and purchasers, but also quite a few regulators of culture and creativity communities.
In addition to the supportive policies, Jiangxi Provincial Copyright Administration has invited Taoxichuan to share its copyright management experience in exhibitions and forums. For example, in December 2019, Taoxichuan was invited to attend the International Forum on Copyright co-organized by WIPO and NCAC, and shared its copyright innovations through a keynote speech.
To provide one-stop copyright services, Taoxichuan introduced the governmental agencies such as Jiangxi Provincial Ceramic IPR Information Center, Taoxichuan Service Depot of Jiangxi Provincial Patent Information Service Center, Jingdezhen Ceramic Copyright Service Station, and Taoxichuan Service Depot of Jiangxi Provincial Intellectual Property Aid Ceramic Work Station, to improve the service system of consultation, declaration and right protection that serves as a solid foundation for copyright service and protection in Taoxichuan.
At present, Taoxichuan's operation mode is popularizing nationwide. In the five ceramic heritage places like Tongchuan in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Longquan in east China's Zhejiang Province, Yuzhou in central China's Henan Province and Dehua in east China's Fujian Province, the Taoxichuan Model is localized and combined with local culture.
Feng Jun said in 2021 Taoxichuan will join hands with East China Jiaotong University and Jiangxi Provincial Intellectual Property Rights Institute to actively prepare the Jingdezhen (Taoxichuan) Ceramic Copyright Trading Platform, which is centered on ceramics to produce more cultural and creative derivatives, and properly manage and operate the copyright assets.
Based on Taoxichuan's resource advantage, a copyright trading App will be developed and both online and offline trading platforms be launched, which make full use of Taoxichuan's live streaming base, online shopping mall, new video, etc. to popularize the high-quality original products of Jingdezhen drifters and makers, carry forward excellent traditional Chinese culture, and make greater contributions to the national ceramic culture inheritance and innovation pilot zone in Jingdezhen. (Source: Chinaxwcb.com)
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