Recent Developments in China's IP Laws in Relation to TRIPS

June 02, 2005 | BY

clpstaff &clp articles

China has made considerable efforts in overhauling its IP legal regime since the country's accession to the WTO in 2001. Still it will be some time yet before these reforms transpire into meaningful ground-level improvements in the enforcement of IP rights.

By Dennis Fernandez and Veronica Weinstein, Fernandez & Associates, Menlo Park, California

When China first bid for membership to the World Trade Organization (WTO), its IP-related laws proved significant obstacles. Every WTO member is required to comply with the Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). In its WTO accession documents, China declared its commitment to improve its legal system in order to comply with TRIPS. Since then, the country has enacted a number of new laws and revised many existing laws and regulations to bring them in-line with TRIPS requirements. Yet, problems still remain.

Strong IP protection is very important for the economic future of China. Foreign investors are constantly trying to assess whether the potential gains of investment outweigh the risk of losing valuable IP rights (IPRs).1 The general attitude of companies going into China still remains - if you bring with you proprietary technology that can be misappropriated, expect it to be misappropriated.

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