The
Wall Street Journal: China is known in some circles as a
bastion of rampant product piracy and intellectual property theft, but
that image could be changing for the positive in the near future
according to a recent piece by Benjamin Bai. From his topical piece
entitled Yes,
China Does Protect Intellectual Property, Bai reports on this
slow-but-sure revolution in Chinese IP protection:
Multinationals also can benefit from several positive IP trends within China. One is a growing emphasis by policy makers on building a functional intellectual property regime. The State Council in 2008 released a new “Outline of the National Intellectual Property Strategy” that acknowledges that robust IP protection is a critical component of an innovation-driven economy. China’s patent law was amended for the third time last year to bring it further in line with international standards. China also is reforming the judicial system in response to the increasing number and complexity of IP suits, clarifying venue rules and considering establishing courts of appeal for IP cases.
China now has a domestic constituency for improved IP enforcement: its own innovative companies. For instance, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., a Shenzhen-based telecoms company, filed the most Patent Cooperation Treaty applications (which lay the groundwork for patent applications in other countries) in 2008, according to statistics published by the World Intellectual Property Organization—beating Panasonic, Phillips, Toyota and other multinational companies that used to hold the top spot. Chinese companies like Huawei benefit from strong IP protection, too, and could help pressure policy makers to strength the IP regime more broadly.
That’s not to say that national interests tend to trump international demands at times, but overall, the trend is strongly in favor of multinational companies investing additional IP resources into gaining a strategic foothold in China.
To read the full, original article click on this link: China Makes Some Inroads Towards Intellectual Property Protection : Innovators Network Blog
Author: akuhn
