Follow The Money

“Western firms are always complaining about the theft of intellectual property in China. From knock-off designs to copycat brand names, pirated music and fake drugs, China has a well-earned reputation as a free-for-all when it comes to patents and copyrights. Worse, there often seems little hope of redress: the courts are too distant and too incompetent; the laws are too weak or too vague; the culture is too resistant to the very idea of intellectual property. Yet help is at hand, in the form of Chinese firms with patents to defend.

“Since 2003 the number of trademark applications has grown by 60%; the number of patents has nearly doubled… and the number of lawsuits about intellectual property has more than doubled. The government is encouraging the trend in many ways, including signalling to the press to cheer it on.

“This enthusiasm marks a dramatic change. During the Maoist era, private property of any kind was seen as theft from the masses, and so subject to just expropriation. Only in 1985 did China begin to enact laws to protect patents. It did not enforce them much until 2001, when the authorities promised to crack down in order to win admission to the World Trade Organisation…

“Unsurprisingly, the main beneficiaries of the sudden interest in intellectual property are Chinese lawyers. Some reportedly earn more than $5M a year. Non-Chinese law firms sometimes provide advice on thorny cases. But they are not allowed to file patents or appear in court on behalf of a client — a proprietary process that Chinese lawyers are keen to defend.”

(“850,000 lawsuits in the making - Doing business in China.” The Economist. April 12, 2008)

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