Shenzhen Zhiming Lawyer Interprets: Legal Compliance and Intellectual Property Issues Behind the Upgrade of Citizen Center Light Show
Under the cover of night, light and shadow circulate and spread among the buildings in the central area of Futian. The Citizen Center light show has undergone its first comprehensive equipment renovation and upgrade after eight years of operation. The lighting renovation project in the central area of Futian will be completed in 2026, and a new control system will be launched simultaneously. The project, with the theme of "Da Peng spreads its wings and flies to the world", will complete the localization replacement and cloud digital transformation of the entire system. The control scope will be expanded to the entire central area, key areas, and buildings along the street. From the perspective of urban management, this is an improvement in the quality of night scenes; From a legal perspective, such large-scale public facility upgrading projects involve multiple legal issues such as government procurement procedures, intellectual property ownership, data security compliance, and engineering quality responsibilities, which deserve serious attention from all parties involved in smart city construction.
Government procurement and bidding: procedural compliance is the cornerstone of engineering legality
The upgrade project of the light show involves a large number of lamp replacement, screen procurement, control system renovation, and software development. The funding comes from public finance and belongs to a typical government procurement project. According to Article 26 of the Government Procurement Law of the People's Republic of China, government procurement adopts methods such as open bidding, invitation bidding, and competitive negotiation, among which open bidding should be the main method. In practice, such projects often involve packaging and outsourcing the procurement of goods and software development. If the procurement targets are not legally distinguished and supplier qualification conditions are not reasonably set, it is easy to trigger doubts, complaints, and even administrative penalties.
Article 3 of the Tendering and Bidding Law also stipulates that large-scale infrastructure, public utilities, and other projects related to social public interests must be tendered. Director Shen Jinlong from Shenzhen Zhiming Law Firm pointed out during his service for government legal advisory projects that smart city projects often have high technical barriers and limited supplier numbers. Therefore, purchasers should pay more attention to the fairness of bidding documents and avoid restricting or excluding potential bidders with unreasonable conditions, otherwise the winning bid may face legal risks of revocation. For enterprises participating in bidding, if they discover illegal situations in the bidding process, they can raise questions and complaints within the statutory time limit to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests.
Intellectual Property Ownership: Software Copyright Hazards in Localization Replacement
This upgrade emphasizes "full system localization replacement" and "cloud digital transformation", which means that a large number of control software and management platforms are developed by domestic suppliers. In such projects, if the ownership of software copyright is not clearly stipulated in the contract, disputes are likely to arise. According to Article 17 of the Copyright Law, the ownership of copyright in commissioned works shall be agreed upon by the principal and the trustee through a contract. If the contract does not explicitly stipulate or conclude a contract, the copyright shall belong to the trustee. That is to say, if the government department does not explicitly stipulate in the procurement contract that the copyright of customized development software belongs to Party A, the supplier may still retain the copyright, and subsequent system iterations and data migration may be subject to others.
In addition, the visual content of the light show, including animation design, laser modeling, music arrangement, etc., constitutes a work of art or music and is protected by the Copyright Law. Unauthorized use of others' works or third-party recording and dissemination for commercial purposes in exhibition content may constitute infringement. Shenzhen Zhiming Law Firm reminds that operating units should establish a content copyright review mechanism to archive and manage the sources and authorization chains of exhibition materials; At the same time, the protection of our own brand and content can be strengthened through trademark registration, work registration, and other means.
Data Security and Operational Responsibility: Compliance Obligations Behind Smart Facilities
The upgraded lighting system is no longer just a visual landscape, but a set of "manageable, controllable, and predictable" smart city facilities, involving the collection and transmission of equipment operation data, energy consumption data, and crowd monitoring data. According to Article 27 of the Data Security Law, a complete process data security management system should be established and improved for data processing activities; The Personal Information Protection Law also imposes strict restrictions on image collection and crowd analysis in public places. If the supporting system of the light show involves facial recognition or crowd density analysis, it must follow the "inform consent" rule and fulfill the obligation of personal information protection impact assessment.
In terms of engineering quality, Article 40 of the Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects stipulates the minimum warranty period. Lighting equipment and control systems, as part of the installation project, should have quality problems during the warranty period, the construction unit shall fulfill its warranty obligations. If the light show is interrupted or equipment falls due to system failure, resulting in personal and property damage, the operator may also assume the fault presumption responsibility for the damage caused by the falling of buildings and structures in accordance with Article 1253 of the Civil Code. Therefore, the construction unit should specify quality assurance clauses, insurance arrangements, and emergency plans in the contract to mitigate operational risks.
From a lamp to a net, the upgrading of urban night scenes reflects the rule of law requirements for the construction of smart cities. Whether it is the rigor of government procurement procedures, the thoroughness of intellectual property clauses, or the bottom line awareness of data compliance, professional legal forces need to intervene in advance. Shenzhen Zhiming Law Firm has long been concerned about legal issues in urban renewal and smart city construction. Director Lawyer Shen Jinlong suggests that companies participating in such projects should complete compliance examinations before bidding, clarify intellectual property, data ownership, and quality responsibilities in the contract, and avoid hidden dangers caused by "heavy construction and light compliance". For ordinary citizens and tourists, when appreciating the beauty of light and shadow, they should also respect the copyright of the exhibition content and not use the recorded light show videos for commercial promotion without permission, jointly maintaining a good urban legal environment.
