Exploring the Path of Intellectual Property in Promoting the Development of the Digital Economy Industry
Author:Peng Xuelong, Director and Professor of the Intellectual Property Research Center, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law
With the rapid development of the digital economy, intellectual property has become a core element in promoting innovation and creation in the digital field, driving the optimization and upgrading of the digital industry, and ensuring the sustainable development of the digital economy. Intellectual property permeates all aspects of the digital economy industry, including research and development, application, and transactions, playing a significant leading and supporting role in promoting the high-quality development of the digital economy industry. Recently, the “Hangzhou Digital Economy Industry Intellectual Property Strategy Development Plan (2025—2027)” (hereinafter referred to as “The Plan”) was issued, comprehensively deploying key tasks for the city’s digital economy industry intellectual property in the next three years. As the first local intellectual property strategy development plan in China specifically targeting the digital economy industry, the forward-thinking thinking and innovative measures reflected in The Plan not only demonstrate significant regional strategic characteristics but also provide reference and guidance for other regions’ intellectual property governance in the digital economy.
The digital economy represents advanced productivity and involves the creation of a large amount of high-value intellectual property. In the field of the digital economy industry, whether or not a country core technical routes and key technologies is crucial to its competitiveness. Currently, China’s digital economy sector still faces the “bottleneck” phenomenon, with high dependence on external sources in various links of the industrial and supply chains. High-end chips, industrial control software, core components, and basic algorithms related to the digital economy industry have not been fully mastered. This restricts the industrial application and promotion of China’s digital technologies, urgently requiring an improvement in the creation of high-value intellectual property in core areas, grasping the “key ox” of independent innovation in digital core technologies, enhancing the fundamental R&D capabilities of digital technologies, and firmly securing the autonomy of the digital economy. The Plan focuses on cutting-edge technology fields such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and big data. Through specific measures such as building innovation platforms, forming innovation alliances, promoting the industrialization of patent-intensive products, and advancing patent navigation, it provides precise support and guidance for technological innovation in the digital economy industry. Additionally, to maintain the competitive market advantages of innovative enterprises, fully stimulate the motivation for innovation and creation, and promote the sustainable development of the digital economy industry, The Plan has actively explored measures to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights such as trademarks, copyrights, and integrated circuit layout designs. These measures align with the rapid development characteristics of the digital economy industry, focusing on strengthening the creation, layout, and protection of high-quality intellectual property to effectively promote the innovation and application of core technologies.
The efficient use of intellectual property is a crucial path for innovative development. Intellectual property can only generate economic and social benefits when it is integrated with the market economy and transformed and utilized. In recent years, China’s digital economy sector has seen frequent innovative achievements, with universities and research institutions holding a large amount of intellectual property. However, some of these achievements have yet to be effectively converted. Currently, the intellectual property transaction system in the digital economy industry is still underdeveloped, with mature evaluation, information, and transaction mechanisms yet to be established, and the economic value of data elements has not been fully released. The Plan directly addresses the conversion pain point of “mismatch between technology supply and demand,” proposing mechanisms such as the construction of trading platforms, the use of information technology, and roadshows to further enhance the precise alignment between technology supply and industrial demand, and to promote the formation of a complete ecosystem from research and development to implementation, awakening “sleeping” patents. The Plan places special focus on data elements, a core resource of the digital industry, by improving processes and systems for data attribution, evaluation, circulation, and application to fully release the economic value of data elements. It proposes measures such as establishing industrial funds, conducting patent pledge financing, exploring pilot programs for patent insurance, and constructing risk-sharing mechanisms to provide more comprehensive financial support for the technology conversion of innovative entities. In summary, the Plan employs comprehensive, multi-dimensional measures of “supply-demand matching, data activation, and financial empowerment” to break through the bottlenecks from technology development to market application, thereby helping to improve the efficiency of intellectual property conversion.
High-level protection of intellectual property is the institutional guarantee for innovative development. With the vigorous development of the digital economy, intellectual property protection has increasingly become a crucial tool for safeguarding technological innovation, promoting industrial upgrading, and maintaining fair competition. Currently, the judicial adjudication rules for cases in new fields and emerging business formats such as platform economy, data property, and artificial intelligence still need improvement. The strong penetration characteristic of the digital economy enables it to deeply integrate into all sectors of production, distribution, exchange, and consumption in the socio-economic sphere. In the process of its deep integration with the real economy, it may give rise to complex intellectual property issues spanning across industries and fields, urgently requiring the construction of more efficient and collaborative intellectual property protection mechanisms. The Plan proposes strengthening close collaboration among various departments to establish a comprehensive, multi-dimensional full-chain intellectual property protection framework, improving the linkage mechanism between intellectual property administrative enforcement and judicial processes, and directly addressing key issues in intellectual property protection for the digital economy industry. The Plan also proposes exploring intellectual property protection rules, models, and judicial rules for the digital economy industry, filling the gaps left by traditional intellectual property in the digital economy, and holding significant importance for constructing a complete intellectual property protection system under the backdrop of a digital society.
The upgrading of intellectual property services and talent cultivation is of great significance for promoting high-quality development of intellectual property and optimizing the innovative ecosystem of the digital industry. It not only affects the quality and effectiveness of intellectual property protection but also facilitates the transformation and application of innovative achievements. The digital economy industry has put comprehensive demands on the professionalism, convenience, precision, and internationalization of intellectual property services. The Plan proposes to create intellectual property service clusters for the digital industry, providing more professional and centralized intellectual property services for the digital economy industry. These clusters, built on the intensive intellectual property industry of the digital economy, are conducive to promoting the diversified development of intelligent intellectual property creation entities and digital operation platforms, the continuous innovation of smart intellectual property service models, and the comprehensive application of intellectual property digital intelligence management, thereby enhancing the overall service quality of the digital economy industry chain.
Additionally, the digital economy has also placed new demands on the cultivation of intellectual property talent, requiring expertise in traditional intellectual property law while also mastering the principles of technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and blockchain. At the same time, it is essential to possess the ability to apply digital tools, an international perspective, and dynamic learning skills to address the numerous challenges brought by the cross-border integration of digital technologies, rapid industrial iteration, and intensified global competition. The Plan proposes establishing a robust system for cultivating intellectual property talent by combining the introduction of external expertise with local training, aiming to attract and develop more highly skilled, interdisciplinary, and internationally-oriented intellectual property professionals who are proficient in law, familiar with technology, and possess a global vision, fully aligning with the profound transformation in the demand for intellectual property talent in the digital economy era.
Intellectual property management, as a crucial link in the entire intellectual property chain, not only plays a core connecting role in creation, protection, and utilization but is also a key support for maximizing innovation value. With the rapid development of the digital economy industry, there is an urgent need to enhance risk prevention and control capabilities, maintain the security and stability of the industrial chain, and improve the core competitiveness of the industry by establishing a full-process management model for intellectual property, applying digital tools, and achieving standardized integration. The Plan systematically designs the optimization and upgrading of intellectual property management from three aspects: establishing a full-process intellectual property management mechanism for major projects, accelerating the digital transformation of intellectual property, and promoting the standardized construction of intellectual property management for digital economy enterprises. This reflects a shift from “passive protection” to “proactive governance” and from “fragmented management” to “full-chain management.” Specifically, the Plan ensures effective management of intellectual property in all stages of major projects in the digital economy industry through the establishment of a full-process intellectual property management mechanism for major projects, helping to avoid intellectual property risks during project implementation and improving the security and stability of the industrial chain. Additionally, the Plan proposes encouraging and promoting digital economy enterprises to implement international and national standards, integrating intellectual property management into the entire process of enterprise production and operation, enhancing the level of innovation and intellectual property management of enterprises, and helping to reduce compliance risks and strengthen enterprise competitiveness.
