On October 27-28 the National Copyright Administration (NCA)- and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)-sponsored "2008 International Copyright Forum" is held at the Beijing Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Since its inception in China in 2006 this annual forum has become China's first international forum established by the NCA and WIPO. The theme of this year's forum is "Copyright and Wealth Creation." The forum focuses on the overarching goals of integrating technological development trends restructuring of China's industries and building a harmonious society. The forum also addresses issues concerning China's efforts to reach a consensus with the international community intellectual property protection strategies' and intellectual property industry's contribution to the national economy trends for software and intellectual property rights in the 21st century and new challenges facing the protection of intellectual property rights in the digital environment.

General Administration of Press and Publication Director and NCA Head Liu Binjie and WIPO Deputy Director General Keplinger act as hosts and deliver the opening speeches. The forum attracts many leaders scholars entrepreneurs and media workers concerned with intellectual property-related issues from countries such as China USA Japan Korea India Malaysia Italy Hungary and Kenya. At the conference Tencent co-founder and CAO Chen Yidan delivers the speech "Trends and Challenges of China's Application Software Industry in the Internet Age."

Chen Yidan points out that the future trend of China's applications will become more online- and service-based. Such a trend will bring new challenges to the protection of intellectual property. Only when a well thought out legal framework tailored to China's new trend is put in place and when new breakthroughs and improvements are made in the protection of online- and service-based intellectual property rights can China's software industry successfully reach the next stage of development.

In the Internet age intellectual property protection faces three major challenges. The first challenge comes from low software security threshold which threatens user safety. The second more striking challenge revolves around the violation of intellectual property rights through technological means or unfair competition. The third challenge comes from neglect of intellectual property rights of freeware. Many users and even industry insiders are unaware of the issues surrounding the intellectual property rights of freeware. Such neglect results in repeated violations of intellectual property rights.

Chen Yidan emphasizes that the public will need to scale a learning curve for the intellectual property protection of software. Enterprises must also undertake the responsibilities of improving services and meeting users' demand. While intellectual property protection is a powerful instrument to accelerate industry growth it is not the only way to help the industry grow. While striving to protect their intellectual property service providers should also listen to user input. Only through finding the right balance between the protection of intellectual property and the service of users will the public begin to understand and accept the need of enterprises to protect their intellectual properties. Only then will we be able to ensure the long term and continuous growth of China's software and Internet industries.

Chen Yidan then points out that China's law enforcement judicial and legislative institutions have been daring and dedicated to keeping up with the times. These institutions have not only solved a number of issues relating to software and online intellectual property rights responsively but also raised the public's awareness of the law enforcement and judicial aspects of intellectual property rights by including online users in relevant discussions. Discussions on legislation have included input from both industries as well as the public. Now that these measures have proven their usefulness the public's understanding of intellectual property rights in the new industry environment has been gradually increased. The number of people who are aware of these issues has been expanded. Having improved the public's awareness of intellectual property rights these measures set up a legal and social environment conducive to the protection of intellectual property rights.

Chen Yidan concludes that the increased online and service orientations of software have become the trend and mainstream in China's software industry in the 21st century. We must embrace and quickly adapt to such a trend. As we push China's software industry forward we must recognize our competitive edge and seize the opportunity to grow quickly. As the online software market becomes ever more dynamic intellectual property rights protection deserves ever more attention. Intellectual property rights protection will also need to deal with new issues more aggressively and responsively. To counter the evolving ways in which intellectual property rights could be violated legislative judicial and law enforcement agencies must be able to quickly adapt to specific intellectual property issues relating to specific products. By doing so these agencies will build a legal environment that will enhance the development of China's software and internet industries in a fast changing sector.