China steps up IP protection, but still a long way to go

As part of the global Intellectual Property-party celebrated yesterday to emphasise the importance of giving inventors, artists and designers temporary ownership over their creations, China, global piracy hotspot, was keen to show the progress being made.

Last November, Chinese authorities announced a half-year campaign of increased attention to fighting counterfeiting, undoubtedly to be able to show some juicy cases on World Intellectual Property Day.

On local and regional levels, however, administrators often lack the drive or experience to lastingly tackle counterfeiting. The sale of counterfeited goods is still a very common sight in Chinese cities. Stalls with counterfeited CDs, DVDs, appliances, clothing, perfume and much, much more line the streets. Raids occur every so often, but a few weeks later the vendors are flogging their wares again.

Still, on the national level China does seem to take IP more seriously. Over the last two years, both the patent law and copyright law were amended. This year should mark the completion of the trademark legislation’s revision. The amount of IP-related cases brought before court has risen steeply from 30.000 in 2009 to 41.000 one year later.

Click here and here for previous coverage on China's IP policy

Source: BBC