Protecting intellectual property in China

Foreign firms trying to protect their intellectual property rights (IPRs) in emerging economies are suffering real pressures because these economies usually offer little or no enforcement of IPR. Foreign firms therefore have to resort to approaches unlike those they use in developed countries. This paper explores what managers of foreign firms in China have already tried in their efforts to achieve effective IPR protection – specifically, they have crafted de facto strategies that can protect IPR without using China's legal system or engaging in lawsuits against imitators. These strategies work, and this paper explains how and why, thus offering a potential template for IPR protection in other economies with weak appropriability systems.

2015

Management Research News, 2007

Deakin Law Review, 2013

Over the last 40 years, China has developed laws for the protection of intellectual property rights. Unfortunately, these laws have not been uniformly enforced, making such protection problematic for Australian and other foreign organisations wishing to do business in China. This article first scrutinises the current Chinese laws covering intellectual property protection. It then examines the outcomes of a qualitative study that addressed intellectual property protection issues faced by selected Australian organisations conducting business with Chinese counterparts located in China. Forty Australian business managers/owners from Australian companies having business relationships with Chinese firms were interviewed for this study. The findings show that protection issues are only relevant to certain types of businesses that have intellectual property to protect. Nevertheless, a number of the managers/owners interviewed believed that infringement threats were real and inevitable in Ch...

Journal of Asia-Pacific Business, 2009

Journal of International Business Studies

Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 2014

2014

Abstract: This paper focus on the clustering dynamics based on/supported by R&D offshoring trends as exemplified by the biopharmaceutical sector in China. It suggests two baselines of the institutional arrangements appropriate to initiate innovation-based clusters: (1) emphasis on the linkages and expansion in global innovation networking, and (2) focus on breeding regional innovation networks and enterprise’s embeddedness. Above, especially in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, these two-dimension baselines are closely intertwined and develop by means of R&D offshoring and clustering dynamics, as it is demonstrated by the case study of interaction and co-evolution between Chinese and multinational pharmaceutical companies (MPCs).

2014

Since the opening of China’s economy in 1978, a near constant stream of intellectual property rights (IPRs) disputes have arisen between China and its major trading partners. As China has become the world’s largest exporter, and the developing world’s largest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI), the protection of IPRs has become a topic of interest among scholars. Although on the books China’s IPR laws are on par with those found in the developed world, their enforcement of these laws has been lax and uneven. The literature commonly attributes China’s low IPR enforcement to weak institutions and frames it as a problem that has harmed China’s development. However, this paper takes an alternative view. It argues that, when choosing a level of IPR protection, Chinese policymakers have been responsive to three forces that all have a stake in China’s IPR policy. In order to formulate IPR policies that maximize China’s general welfare, policymakers must balance the desires of for...

2015

This study aims to analyze the manner in which China leads the contemporary economic order, in addition to the role its diplomatic corps plays in the political setting of international economy. Not only did China doubled its per capta income from 2005 to 2012, but it also reached an economic growth of about 10% a year and it became a major exporter of high-technology goods. Such transformations have somewhat shifted China’s international stances in fora such as the IMF, the WTO and WIPO. It is increasingly necessary that other countries and international organizations alike effectively understand and communicate with China’s diplomatic body and entrepreneurs in order to achieve consensus, coordinate policies and reach agreements. Hence, this study assesses the current state of the art of Chinese international economic politics, supported by, but not limited to, the work of authors such as Alice Amsden, Ha-Joon Chang, Beina Xu and Jianfu Chen. Chinese economy and international trade will also be examined by means of the country’s engagements in the World Trade Organization, in the international financial sector and in major markets worldwide. With regard to political aspects, China’s contemporary role in international groups and institutions with economic attributes, such as the BRICS and the UNCTAD, will be better determined. As far as technological and innovative legal frameworks are concerned, this study aims to understand the contradictions that make China one of the world’s most relevant countries in terms of patent applications, and, nevertheless, a one that still offers various bureaucratic challenges to entrepreneurs, companies and academic researchers. On a final note, what are the predictions regarding China’s international economic politics? What can we expect from the Asian giant concerning intellectual property rights and technological innovation? Are financial and economic interests able to overcome state meddling and political disputes with the West?