UK-China: Opportunities, challenges and IP protection

After a challenging few years, many arts companies in the UK are looking for ways to grow in new directions. There’s a widespread desire for greater reach, connection with new audiences and collaborations with inspiring international organisations that bring an alternative perspective. Plus, increased interest in opportunities to travel and share work. 

As the UK’s fifth largest trading partner, China offers great potential for future arts partnerships: “UK-China trade is worth over £100 billion per year,” according to Samuel Stone, the UK’s IP attaché for China.  

He continued: “This is a significant opportunity for UK businesses, so of course, when businesses want to operate in and do business with China, this really brings along the importance of protecting intellectual property rights and intangible assets."

Where to start on your journey

With a vibrant arts scene and engaged audiences, China is rich with possibilities for small to medium-sized organisations in the UK looking for new creative pathways. The challenge for many of these companies is understandable concern about the practicalities of pursuing this market. 

Questions that often get asked by artists and organisations looking to branch out include: Where do I get funding? How to I make connections? Who can help me with verifying potential partners or making travel arrangements? Perhaps most importantly, there is the question of copyright and Intellectual Property (IP) rights when touring work to China. 

“Many businesses have the perception that there is little or no IP protection in China, when in fact the changes that China has been implementing have been bringing up the standards of IP protection across a number of areas over time,” says Stone. 

"However, despite this progress, China has remained on the 2024 US Trade Representative priority watch list for IP due to widespread online piracy and counterfeit goods."

There are now more resources available for UK organisations looking to understand where to start on this journey: the British Council’s China Now website is a good place to start this process. 

Connections through culture

To support new connections, the British Council has recently launched the latest round of their Connections Through Culture* grants. These small-scale grants give UK organisations the opportunity to connect with Chinese organisations and audiences.

Take, for example, the Travelling Ideas project, which sprung from a collaboration between the Scottish Dance Theatre (SDC) and Shanghai International Dance Centre and addresses IP issues head on. This collaboration came to life after SDC performed in 2018, leading to talks about a potential future collaboration. 

They first partnered on a digital work by Yabin Studio, supported by the British Council, which premiered at the 2021 China Contemporary Dance Biennale. Then after the pandemic, they shifted to looking for creative new ways to collaborate outside the traditional boundaries of physical travel. 

The result has been an innovative programme that launches this year and is anchored by three key elements. “Our goal is to gain a better understanding of the legal framework regulating IP exploitation both in China and the UK,” says SDC Artistic Director Joan Clevillé. 

“We want to assess the demand for more environmentally sustainable content and start to build connections with potential partners that could lead to collaborative relationships in the future.”

Seek out professional legal advice

Supported through the project will be a new research paper by UK producer Joanna Dong exploring the opportunities, practicalities and potential challenges of IP exploitation of artistic content by UK companies in China. 

“We have only just begun our research, but it is already clear that resilience and adaptability are key,” says Clevillé. “We are interested in cultivating mutually beneficial relationships and innovative collaboration models that enable artistic exchange despite environmental or geo-political challenges.”

Following the research will be a series of presentations, and a panel event for local artists, venues and programmers advocating for the need of sustainable international work hosted by SIDC. 

It is a fascinating approach and one that many arts organisations in the UK and China could – and should – look to for inspiration when it comes to paving new pathways for creative partnerships. However, Stone stresses the importance of getting sound legal advice before making any decisions.

“Companies need to know that they should be getting professional legal advice, that they should be registering their IP wherever possible (especially with trademarks in China), to make sure that their IP is best protected,” he says.

Alex Lalak is a writer and journalist specialising in arts and culture. 
 britishcouncil.cn/en/programmes/arts/china-now
 @cn_British

*Applications for Connections Through Culture grants close on 2 September 2024. 

This article, sponsored and contributed by the British Council, is part of a series aimed at UK arts organisations and artists with an interest in working in mainland China.