China Law Insight : China Law Insight: China Commercial and Intellectual Property Lawyers and Attorneys, Full Service Law Firm: King & Wood

These included the establishment of the following:

• Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks
• Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute
• Various funding schemes managed by the Innovation and Technology Commission

The main location of the Hong Kong Science Parks located at Pak Shek Kok - now comprising around a dozen state-of-the-art multi-story buildings under its first two phases of construction - stands as a visible testimony to Hong Kong's attempt to put itself on the yellow brick road of innovation and technology. In addition to established tech companies and R&D facilities, its current occupants include some 100 startup companies under its incubation program. Since the program's inception, more than 200 incubatees have graduated.

The Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (“ASTRI”), modeled after the successful Industrial Technology Research Institute (“ITRI”) of Taiwan, was established in 2000 and is engaged in mid-stream R&D in IC designs, communications technologies, enterprise & consumer electronics, and material & packaging technologies. At the end of 2008, ASTRI employed more than 340 researchers.

The Innovation and Technology Commission is an executive government body under the Communications and Technology Branch of the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau. It manages various government innovation and technology funds focused on helping local businesses in the relevant sectors. Among various funding schemes pertinent to startup financing, is the Small Entrepreneur Research Assistance Program (“SERAP”), which provides pre-VC stage financing to startups.

In addition to the above initiatives, the government has had a long-standing policy to invest substantially in higher education. Despite its relatively small size, Hong Kong has eight universities, some of which have won academic acclaim worldwide and are highly ranked in selected fields. Universities in Hong Kong have regularly achieved breakthroughs and successes in their research efforts. Many made significant efforts to commercialize their research results.

In April 2009, based on the recommendation of a government appointed economic advisory committee, Chief Executive Donald Tsang announced that Hong Kong should focus on and encourage businesses in six major industrial areas where Hong Kong is believed to have competitive advantages. These areas include innovation and technology, the cultural and creative industry and the environmental industry.

Some critics charge that much more could have been done by the government to help innovation and technology based entrepreneurial pursuits. None would dispute that the policies now in place, however, are vast improvements compared with the virtual absence of government support under the so-called “Positive Non-interventionist” policies of the pre-1997 British administrations.
 

Providing South Korea as an example, Dr. Cave commented on the fast development and implementation of broadband in that country, and added to that example the Singapore government's policy “for creating a very high speed broadband network throughout the island.” According to Dr. Cave, “This approach yields much quicker results, and can also be used to support local equipment development and manufacture.”

As the conversation progressed from these Asian countries towards China, Dr. Cave pointed out that while he is not a China expert, in his opinion,

“…it is obvious that mobile voice, in China, as in India and elsewhere, is transforming the consumer market place. Mobile also provides a fertile opportunity for the development of Chinese technologies and standards. I have recently prepared a report for the GSM Association, a coalition of mobile operators, which argues that mobile communications thrive in a relatively unregulated atmosphere -- one which utilises competing operators' desires to win customers with keen prices and new services."

Dr. Cave commented that this transforming marketplace naturally progresses towards mobile broadband and that the next decade will see increasing broadband speeds, In fact, securing access to broadband has become intrinsically tied to a country's economic growth. Dr. Cave further commented on mobile broadband that

“A country which loses out in this race [to develop mobile broadband networks] risks suffering major economic loss. In areas where there is no fixed network, wireless is the key, and many technologies are or will be available -- 3G, varieties of 4G, Wi-max, etc. ”

Dr. Cave provided as an example the Australian company, Telstra, which has built a wireless network within a short time period which delivers high speed broadband to 99% of the population. He commented that Telstra's network

“…is encouraging its competitors to follow suit. If this sort of network is replicated in other countries, and if enough spectrum is made available to support the traffic, the capacity of less affluent countries to 'catch-up' could have remarkable effects. There will still be a need to develop fibre-based networks for business, and in areas where they are already available, but these might take second place to wireless networks in meeting household demand. The good thing about wireless technologies is that they are inherently competitive, so the need for regulation is more limited than it is for monopoly fixed networks; this state of ‘permanent competition’ imposes on operators a permanent need to invest to retain customers and capture new ones. ”

However, while certain areas develop best with minimal regulatory interference, Dr. Cave added that others require regulatory interaction to ensure fair competition in an international market. He emphasizes that

“business customers - especially large corporations – [need to] get the range and quality of services which assist them in competing successfully in international markets. This involves creating regulatory incentives to extend fibre deployment in business districts.”

Dr. Cave added that he sees enormous scope for China in the communications equipment market. He commented, “[China] has a large home market, and already a major international one, where its success is increasingly based on technological rather than price-based competition.”

When asked about the future of copyright protection for data exchanged over the
Internet, through phone devices, or through other web-related devices, Dr. Cave pointed to the market power shift from networks to content that has occurred in the last two decades. He states

“From this point of view, the proponents of net neutrality, such as Google, are fighting off an attempt by network operators such as AT&T and Verizon to re-assert themselves. However, content is only as valuable as its copyright protection is effective, and peer-to-peer exchanges, social networking sites and other developments endanger its value. But this is a new manifestation of the permanent battle between owners and would-be copiers. The copyright owners use technology such as digital rights management and new business models such as low-cost music downloads to make their paid offerings more palatable to consumers.”

As our discussion with Dr. Cave came to a close, he predicted that while copyright owners won't lose this battle over copyright, the way they are remunerated may change significantly.