fredag 13. november 2020

How China’s Legal System Enables Intellectual Property Theft

Despite dissension over how to hold China accountable for unfair market practices, hawks and doves agree that the country’s intellectual property protection regime has made significant progress in recent years. The establishment of specialized IP courts, a Supreme People’s Court IP tribunal, as well as countless revisions to the country’s various IP laws, all attest to this.

But since China’s IP framework is intrinsically linked with the country’s legal system, solving issues like trade secrets theft, online infringement and political influence and local protectionism via the courts would require a complete structural overhaul. Beijing undoubtedly knows this, which means pledges made in the phase one trade agreement with the United States were at best hollow promises designed to appease Washington.