Remarks at Pearl River Delta International Forum on Innovation and Intellectual Property
by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke
Shangri-La Hotel, Guangzhou
Tuesday, October 27, 2009

“珠三角创新与知识产权”国际论坛上的发言
美国商务部长骆家辉
广州 香格里拉酒店
2009年10月27日

Good morning.

早上好。

Thank you Ambassador Huntsman.

谢谢洪大使。

This year marks the 60th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. In the last few decades, hundreds of millions of Chinese have joined the global middle class as China has become a destination for capital, for ideas and for innovation.

今年是中华人民共和国成立60周年。在过去几十年里，随着中国成为吸引资本、创意和创新的热土，数亿中国人已加入全球中产阶层的行列。

And one of the best illustrations of this transformation is China's burgeoning trade relationship with the United States. We are one another's second-biggest trading partners.  In the past 20 years, U.S. exports to China have increased by a factor of 12; while U.S. imports from China have increased almost 30-fold. The pace of change right here in Guangdong Province is a most striking illustration of this.

而最能体现这种转变的事情之一，就是中国与美国之间迅速发展的贸易关系。我们各自都是对方的第二大贸易伙伴。在过去20年里，美国对中国的出口增加了12倍，而美国从中国的进口则增加了近30倍。这种变化的步伐在广东省这里体现得尤其显著。

Thirty years ago, Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping chose a small fishing village not far from here as China’s first Special Economic Zone. Today, that village makes up Shenzhen, which boasts a population of 14 million people and is one of China’s most dynamic cities.

三十年前，邓小平副总理选择离此不远的一个小渔村作为中国首个经济特区。今天，那个的渔村已经变成了深圳，一个拥有1400万人口、中国最具活力的城市之一。

The Pearl River Delta is now a thriving example of market principles at work.
There are more than 100,000 factories that make every type of product imaginable – from iPhones and flat screen TVs to cell phones and high fashion apparel.

今天的珠三角是市场原则发挥作用的一个繁荣例子。这里有十几万家工厂，生产你能想象得到的各种产品，从iPhone、平板电视、手机、到高档服装。

But we also know that the Chinese economy is increasingly moving up the global economic value chain, where growth is created not just by the power of a country’s industrial might, but also by the power of their ideas and their inventions. The next critical step is for China to develop more homegrown entrepreneurs that sell high-value and high-tech products here in China and around the world.

但我们也知道，在全球经济价值链中，中国正日益向高端转移，而在高端，增长不仅要靠一个国家的工业实力，还要靠他们的创意和发明来推动。对中国来说，下一步的关键是培养更多能在中国和世界各地销售高附加值和高科技产品的本土企业家。

If China, and in particular Guangdong Province, is going to make this transition, it will have to create a system of laws and a regulatory infrastructure that rewards and protects those who take risks to develop new innovations. And a cornerstone of that effort must be a rigorously enforced intellectual property regime. If innovators fear that their inventions or ideas will be stolen, then one of two things will happen – they’ll either stop inventing, or they’ll decide to create their inventions elsewhere. Here in Guangdong Province, this issue is particularly relevant. Last year, firms based in Guangdong Province obtained more patents than firms based in any other single Chinese province. Guangdong Province has the potential to be China’s epicenter of innovation.   And the stronger intellectual property laws and enforcement are, the greater the incentive for domestic and foreign innovators to create their products right here.

如果中国，尤其是广东省，要实现这种转型，就必须建立一套为那些冒着风险开发新创意的人提供奖励和保护的法律法规体系。而这方面工作的基石，是对知识产权制度的严格执行。如果创新者担心他们的发明或创意会被人盗用，就只会发生两种情况：要么他们会停止发明创造，要么他们会决定去其它地方实现自己的发明创造。在广东省这里，这个问题尤其重要。去年，广东的企业获得的专利数比任何其它省的企业都要多。广东具有成为中国创新中心的潜力，而知识产权法律及其执法越有力，国内及外国的创新者在这里研发自己产品的动力就越强。

In the past few years, China has taken several steps to protect the IP of American and other foreign companies operating within its borders.
For example:
• The Guangdong Intellectual Property Office settled 198 of the 199 patent-related complaints it received.
• There were nearly 2,500 trademark infringement cases of overseas rights holders in China last year, a 35 percent increase over 2007.

过去几年里，中国采取了若干措施来保护在中国境内经营的美国及其它外国公司的知识产权。
例如：
• 广东省知识产权局受理了199宗与专利有关的投诉，解决了其中的198宗。
• 去年，中国受理了近2500宗涉及海外所有权人的商标侵权案件，比2007年增加了百分之三十五。

But despite these steps, American companies in fields as diverse as technology, entertainment and pharmaceuticals still lose billions every year in China from intellectual property theft.

但尽管如此，在从科技、娱乐到制药等广泛领域，美国公司仍然每年在中国由于知识产权被盗用而遭受数以十亿美元计的损失。

In short, much more needs to be done. Strongly worded IP laws are only as valuable as the civil and criminal penalties people face for breaking them – and China’s enforcement of IP laws is often uneven. For example, the U.S. government has received reports of occasional aggressive intellectual property law enforcement in Shenzhen, while receiving consistent reports of very lax enforcement elsewhere, including, unfortunately, right here in Guangdong. For this reason, the U.S. Department of Commerce as well as other arms of our government seeks to expand our work with our Chinese counterparts on enforcement efforts.

简而言之，需要做的事情还很多。措词严厉的知识产权法律，只有通过人们在违法后所面临的民事和刑事惩罚的严厉程度才能体现出来。而中国知识产权法律的执法道路并不平坦。例如，美国政府很高兴曾经收到过关于深圳在知识产权方面积极执法的报告，同时也很遗憾地经常收到关于其它地方， 如广东，执法非常松懈的报告。正因为如此，美国商务部及美国其它政府部门希望扩大我们与中国在执法方面的相应部门之间的合作。

The United States and China have already taken a series of steps to ramp up awareness and promotion of intellectual property protection.
• In the past 12 months, the United States Patent and Trademark Office signed three Memorandums of Understanding with its Chinese counterparts to enhance cooperation on intellectual property issues.
• Last December, PTO officials stationed in Guangzhou participated with China Customs officials from Guangdong Province in a training program on how to identify counterfeit goods.
• And in April, PTO Guangzhou and the State Intellectual Property Office jointly organized a program on patent filing and enforcement in Shenzhen.

美国和中国已经采取了一系列措施来提高知识产权意识，推动对知识产权的保护。
• 过去12个月里，美国专利商标局与中国方面签订了三份关于加强知识产权合作的备忘录。
• 去年12月，美国专利商标局驻广州的官员与广东省的海关官员合作举办了一个关于如何鉴别假冒商品的培训。
• 今年4月，美国专利商标局广州办事处和中国国家知识产权局在深圳联合开展了关于专利申请与执法的项目。

Our outreach not only includes the Chinese government but the academic and private sectors as well. The PTO has forged ties with universities whose professors and students are vital to changing attitudes about condoning the purchase and use of counterfeit and pirated products. And we would like to see a firm directive from the Central Government to state-run libraries and academic institutions to dissuade these libraries from facilitating illegal reproduction and distribution of electronic journals through the Internet. In a few hours, I’m going to speak with students and faculty at Jinan University. Like their American counterparts, many students at Jinan University don’t realize how soon they’re going to be out in the workforce as employees or as entrepreneurs. And a few years from now, they too will count on a system that rewards those who create products and services that help citizens around the world lead healthier, wealthier and more productive lives.

我们的合作对象不单包括中国政府，也包括学术界和企业界。美国专利商标局已经与中国的大学建立了合作关系。大学里的教授和学生对于改变人们对购买和使用假冒及盗版产品的宽容态度发挥着重要作用。我们希望看到中国的中央政府对国营图书馆和学术机构发出明确指示，阻止这些图书馆为通过互联网非法复制并传播电子刊物的行为提供协助。再过几个小时，我还要去暨南大学与那里的大学生和老师交谈。与美国大学生的情况一样，暨南大学的许多学生也没有意识到，现在距离他们作为雇员或创业者进入就业市场的时间是多么的短暂。几年以后，他们也需要依赖一套制度来奖励那些为让世界各地的人活得更健康、更富有、更有成就感而创造新产品和新服务的人。

I know that building an effective patent and trademark system is not easy -- because over 200 years after its founding, the United States is still working to perfect its own. Only a few years after the American Revolution, our third president Thomas Jefferson helped create the U.S. patent office because he understood two fundamental truths.  He knew:
• That long term economic growth was dependent on a continuous flow of new technologies and new ideas entering the marketplace;
• But he also knew that without a promise of ownership protection for these ideas, innovators would never be willing to take risks to improve upon the status quo.
Although the United States continues efforts to reform our own patent system to reflect the rapid changes in the global economy, the necessity of having robust patent and trademark protections is not a matter of serious debate.

 我知道，建设一套行之有效的专利商标体系并不容易，因为在建国200多年后的今天，美国仍在努力完善自己的专利商标体系。在美国独立战争之后不久，我们的第三任总统，托马斯•杰斐逊，就帮助创立了美国专利局，因为他充分理解两个基本事实。他知道：
• 长期的经济增长有赖于新科技和新创意不断流入市场；
• 但他也知道，如果缺乏为这些创意提供所有权保护的承诺，创新人才就不愿冒着风险来改进现状。
尽管美国仍在继续努力，根据全球经济的不断变化来改革我们自己的专利体系，但为专利和商标提供稳健保护的必要性是毋庸置疑的。

And I hope this sentiment will start to take deeper root in China. Because at stake is not just the fate of our future economic growth -- but possibly the fate of our planet.

我希望这种意识能很快在中国更加深入人心。因为它不仅影响我们未来经济增长的命运，还可能影响我们这个星球的命运。

This summer, I came to China with U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, to explore avenues for clean energy cooperation.  While here, I said that the prospect of climate change presented both a great challenge and a great opportunity.The challenge of course, is that if nations around the world don't start using less fossil fuels, we’ll all suffer from the environmental damage that the world's top scientists believe is undoubtedly in store. But if we can somehow avoid this fate with new technological solutions to use energy more cleanly and efficiently, we will have discovered one of the greatest avenues for economic growth of the 21st century. Seizing this opportunity will surely require robust government action, and I want to commend the Chinese government for its foresight in this area. China has already adopted the most aggressive energy efficiency program in the entire world, and it is on track to exceed many of its renewable energy adoption goals.

今年夏天，我与美国能源部长朱棣文先生一起访问中国，探讨清洁能源合作的途径。访问期间，我指出：气候变化既是一个严峻挑战，也是一个巨大机会。挑战当然就是：如果世界各国不开始减少使用化石燃料，我们都将遭受这必然导致的环境损害，这是世界顶尖科学家们的共识。但如果我们能通过新的科技方案更清洁有效地利用能源，从而避免这种命运，那我们将找到21世纪经济增长最重要的途径之一。要抓住这个机会，政府必须采取有力行动。在这里我要称赞中国政府在这个领域的远见。中国实行了世界上最积极的能源效率计划，并且，在可再生能源的许多方面正稳步超越其目标。

But meeting a challenge as big as climate change will require more than just enlightened public policy. It will also require a wave of private sector innovation every bit as immense as those that accompanied the industrial revolution and the onset of the computer and Internet age. In today's global economy -- where ideas are just as likely to be discovered in San Francisco as Shanghai – we need to do everything we can to incentivize and empower the brightest minds we have to solve climate change. And that means we need to create the right protections for ideas.

但应对气候变化这样一个巨大挑战，仅有开明的公共政策是不够的。它还需要丝毫不亚于曾伴随工业革命及计算机与互联网时代诞生的那种汹涌的私营企业创新浪潮。在当今这样一个新创意既可能诞生于旧金山也可能诞生于上海的的全球化经济中，我们必须想尽一切办法来激励并解放那些解决气候变化问题所需要的最聪明的头脑。这意味着我们必须为新创意提供适当保护。

When Bill Gates quit college to begin his path towards starting Microsoft, he had no guarantee of success. But he kept moving forward, because he hoped that someday, all his hard work just might result in the creation of something special that he could call his own. And because Bill Gates received IP protection for his ideas, millions of people around the world have benefited. Somewhere in the world, is the Bill Gates of clean energy, and we need to make sure he or she has similar protection.

当比尔•盖茨从大学退学，踏上创办微软的道路时，没人保证他一定会成功。但他仍然投身其中，因为他希望有朝一日，他的辛勤劳动可以产生出让他感到自豪的发明创造。而正是由于比尔•盖茨的创意受到知识产权的保护，今天世界各地成千上万人因此而获益非浅。现在世界上的某个地方也许就有清洁能源领域的比尔•盖茨。我们必须确保这样的人能得到类似保护。

So, what is the path forward? While China has made strides in its intellectual property protection, more can and should be done to both entice U.S. companies to invest here and to encourage homegrown Chinese entrepreneurship. For instance, the elimination of overlapping jurisdictions between different Chinese agencies would help streamline the remedy process.  This change would benefit both Chinese and American copyright holders.

那么，下一步应该怎么做呢？尽管中国在知识产权保护方面已经取得很大进步，但要吸引美国公司来这里投资，并且鼓励中国本土的创业精神，还可以并且应该做得更多。例如，消除中国各政府部门间互相重叠的管理权限，有利于简化对受害人的救助程序，而这将使中国和美国的版权持有人都从中得益。

Additionally, there is room for improvement with regard to enforcement matters. Consistent application of the law to intellectual property infringement and misappropriation cases would foster more certainty among users of the legal system. And seeking criminal penalties more frequently for intellectual property and trademark infringement violations would add an important level of deterrence.  Today, 99% of copyright and trademark counterfeiting cases are enforced administratively, rather than criminally. So long as the cost of breaking the law is low, illegal behavior will thrive.  But when laws are enforced at all levels of government, including the local levels, the incidence of bad behavior will sharply decline.

此外，在执法方面还有待改进。对所有知识产权侵权及盗用案件始终如一地适用法律，将使司法系统的使用者产生更多的确定感。而对知识产权及商标侵权行为采取刑事惩罚，将发挥更加重要的阻吓作用。目前，版权和商标假冒案件中99％采用的都是行政处罚，而不是刑事处罚。只要违法成本低，非法行为就会很猖獗。但如果法律能在各级政府，包括地方政府那里得到严格执行，违法行为的发生率就会大幅下降。

These are significant issues, and there are others as well – and yet I am confident that the United States and China have enough mutual trust to honestly and forthrightly exchange our concerns. As two of the world's leading nations, the United States and China have the power and the obligation to alter history for the betterment of our people and the world. Our strength is derived from many sources, but most of all, we owe our success to the ingenuity, intellect and creativity of our people.

以上属于比较严重的问题，此外还有许多其它问题。但我相信，美国和中国有足够的互信来坦率地就我们所关心的问题交换意见。作为世界上的主要国家，美国和中国有能力也有义务为我们两国人民和整个世界更好的明天而改变历史。我们的力量来自许多源泉，但其中最重要的是，我们的成功归功于我们人民的聪明、智慧和创造性。

The intellectual property reforms I have discussed today are an important step toward helping all our people reach their full potential and solve the problems that challenge us all.

我今天所谈论的知识产权改革，是朝着我们的共同目标前进的重要一步，这个目标就是：帮助我们两国人民发挥他们所有的聪明才智，以解决我们共同面临的难题。

Thank you so much for having me here.

谢谢大家！