China joins the Marrakesh Treaty
As part of its effort to become part of the international community, China has just recently joined the Marrakesh Treaty. This marks a great moment in the IP field in the world as China – the most populated country in the world will bring one of the world’s great cultural and literary traditions into the Marrakesh community.
The Marrakesh Treaty
The Marrakesh VIP Treaty (formally the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled, colloquially Marrakesh Treaty or MVT) is a treaty on copyright adopted in Marrakesh, Morocco.
The WIPO-administered Marrakesh Treaty makes the production and international transfer of specially-adapted books for people with blindness or visual impairments more manageable. This is done through the establishment of a set of limitations and exceptions to traditional copyright law.
The Marrakesh Treaty was adopted on June 27, 2013, and entered into force on September 30, 2016. This treaty is WIPO’s fasting growing treaty. At the moment, the Marrakesh Treaty includes 84 contracting parties before China’s accession comes into force on May 5, 2022.
All WIPO member states are eligible to become parties to the Marrakesh Treaty. To become a member, a state must deposit an “instrument” declaring its intention with the Director-General of WIPO – currently Mr. Daren Tang. This instrument must be signed by the Head of State, the Head of Government, or the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
As part of its mission, WIPO is always ready to respond to member state requests for review of national legislation in light of treaty provisions.
China’s ascension to the Marrakesh Treaty
WIPO Director General Daren Tang had received China’s accession document to the Marrakesh Treaty from Vice Minister Zhang Jianchun, National Copyright Administration of China.
When joining the Marrakesh Treaty, China has integrated one of the greatest cultural and literary traditions into the Marrakesh community.
As the largest population country in the entire world, China is the joint place of many great cultural and literary traditions that expands thousands of years.
With this ascension to the Marrakesh Treaty, at the moment, 17 million people in China who are blind and visually impaired will have better access to copyrighted works.
In the future, this number will surely increase dramatically and will have phenomenal benefits to China, as well as other countries that are a part of the Marrakesh Treaty.
In addition, this ascension will also promote cross-border circulation of accessible works in Chinese, allowing other countries to have access to China’s previously exclusive works.
Expert opinions
Mr. Daren Tang – WIPO’s Director General commented on China’s entry into the Marrakesh Treaty: “China has one of the world’s oldest and richest continuing literary and cultural traditions. With China’s entry into the Marrakesh Treaty, people who are blind or have other visual impairments will benefit from having greater access to this rich and continuing tradition. And the blind and visually impaired community in China, which is estimated at over 17 million, will benefit more easily from accessible versions of foreign-produced texts. WIPO’s Accessible Books Consortium (ABC), which works with NGOs to convert books into formats accessible by the visually impaired, will work with stakeholders to add a strong collection of books in Chinese to its current offering of 730,000 books in 80 languages.”
***Other Articles***
– You could see How To Register Trademark in China here.
– You could visit here to see Procedure of Trademark in China.
– You could visit here to check Required documents of filing trademark in China.
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