Why Data Asset Rights Matter: Unlocking Value in the Digital Economy

1. Definition of Data Assets

In December 2021, the Big Data Technology Standards Promotion Committee and the China Academy of Information and Communications released the "Data Asset Management Practice White Paper (Version 5.0)" which defines a “data asset” as data resources legally owned or controlled by an organization, recorded electronically or otherwise, measurable or tradable, and capable of generating economic and social benefits—essentially rights to data with profit potential.

Beyond typical consumer, user, product, and logistics data, various domain‑specific data assets such as financial, medical, transportation, cultural, agricultural, marketing, geographic, and academic data play crucial roles, especially within technology enterprises.

2. Background and Significance of Data Asset Rights

(1) Policy and Legal Research Background

The "Global Digital Economy White Paper" reports a 14.2% annual compound growth of China’s digital economy from 2016 to 2022, accounting for 58% of GDP in 2022. The Civil Code Article 127 affirms data rights as a civil right, requiring protection under civil law. However, no national law or regulation currently defines data rights concretely; local regulations such as Shanghai’s 2021 Data Regulation and Chongqing’s 2022 Data Regulation provide limited safeguards.

The State Council’s "Opinions on Building a Basic Data System to Better Leverage Data Elements" (the "Data Twenty Articles") proposes a comprehensive framework for data property rights, circulation, revenue distribution, and governance, highlighting the need for national legislation.

(2) Significance of Data Asset Rights

1) Incentivizing Data Production : Protecting expected returns encourages investment in data creation and processing, enabling data holders to anticipate benefits such as financing, investment, and commercial use.

2) Facilitating Data Circulation : Clear ownership provides certainty and predictability, reducing legal risk and enabling data licensing, financing, and investment transactions.

3) Resolving Data Silos : Recognizing data processors’ rights allows them to use or license data, breaking down isolated data islands and promoting market‑driven data sharing.

3. Connotation of Data Asset Rights

Data asset rights refer to granting data processors legal control over data, allowing them to exclude others from infringement. Because data is replicable, non‑rivalrous, and non‑exhaustible, legal mechanisms rather than physical barriers are required to protect these rights.

4. The “Three‑Three System” for Data Rights

The system proposes a layered approach:

Horizontal dimension : Distinguish information from data, separate data sources from processors, and differentiate ownership from usage rights.

Vertical dimension : Recognize three stages of data transformation—raw data resources, data collections (standardized datasets), and data products—each requiring distinct rights for ownership, processing, and commercialization.

The State Council’s "Data Twenty Articles" implicitly adopts this layered model by establishing three separate rights: data resource holding right, data processing and use right, and data product operation right.

In practice, raw data owners retain resource ownership, while processors obtain holding rights. During the collection stage, processors acquire processing rights to transform raw data into standardized datasets. Finally, processors can develop data products and enjoy operation rights over those products.

5. Summary and Outlook

Data has become a strategic national asset and a new domain of security. While technology alone cannot resolve all data‑related challenges, establishing robust legal frameworks for data ownership, openness, circulation, and transaction is essential for building an orderly digital society. As emphasized by national leadership, China must formulate comprehensive data asset rights, open‑access, circulation, and trading systems, and develop international data governance policies to present a Chinese solution.