Zhang Xinbao

Professor at Law School in Renmin University of China

Vice President at China Law Society Network and Information Law Research Institute

This is an article from China Civil and Commercial Law Website.

This paper is a short version and detailed article is published in

Chinese Social Sciences 2023, No. 4.

Main point

1. The history of the development of property rights shows that the expansion of the object of property rights is determined by the development of productivity and the expansion of the form of production and living resources. The effectiveness and protection methods of property rights are determined by the nature of the object of property rights.

2. With the development of the information age and the rise of the digital economy, China needs to clarify the data ownership in the national policy, legislative and judicial activities. In theory, data property rights should be established as the third type of patrimonial rights as the absolute right alongside with property rights and intellectual property rights, instead of adopting the non-confirmed right protection mode, the personal information right protection mode or even establish the data property rights as a new form of usufructuary right of existing property rights.

3. To protect the legitimate labor achievements of data processors, it is a necessary measure to construct the data property rights system. Opinion of the central government on the classification of data resources and the separation of data rights have pointed out the direction for data right confirmation, and the principle of labor theory of value has laid the theoretical foundation for data right confirmation. Moreover, the theory of “dividing human from financial resources” has provided institutional arrangements for solving the difficult problems of right confirmation.

4. Data property rights, the rights enjoyed by civil subjects based on data, have the basic attributes of property right, right in rem, limited domination and limited exclusivity. The right holder shall enjoy various rights and abilities, including utilization, profitability, possession and disposal.

Translated by: Liu Yuwei