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Essay on Chinese Intellectual Property And Proposals For Stopping Piracy
China has made substantial progress in some aspects of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection since it signed agreements with the United States on IPR in 1992, 1995 and 1996. However, significant problems remain. In 2000, China improved its legal framework considerably, and is further revising its copyright and trademark laws to bring them into full compliance with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
A major nationwide anti-counterfeiting campaign was initiated in October 2000. Furthermore, there is a new focus on IPR as a factor in domestic growth. Over the past several months, books, television talk shows, media articles, and government and academic reports have highlighted the importance of IPR protection to China's economic development (Xiang, 2002).
According to US-based consulting firm International Planning & Research Corporation, close to 98 per cent of the China software market is pirated (Xiang, 2002).
China is the world's biggest exporter of counterfeit products. In some market segments, China-originated counterfeit goods account for 90 per cent of the global total, according to Singapore-based IP consulting firm Intelleigen.
However, not all foreign enterprises in China are this proactive about defending their IP. In fact, most ignore the risks or take short cuts. The most common mistakes companies make in China are failure to incorporate IP protection strategy into their business planning, failure to allocate sufficient internal and external resources, and over-reliance on law firms.
Japan's NEC, with almost US$2 billion invested in China, is also grappling with IP theft. Although Kozo Kuriyama, its associate vice-president of IP management and strategy, Asean, would not release figures, he admits China is its most challenging market for IP theft (Yeh, 1999).
As in Taiwan and Korea years ago,
Kuriyama believes the Chinese will get serious about IP protection when their homegrown companies become successful domestically....
