Virtually everyone is looking west or east (depending on your geographic location in the world) towards China and its continuing emergence as a global economic power. There is no question in my mind that, in twenty or so, China will be dominating the world economically and perhaps geopolitically. Pax Americana will be but a fading memory.
All that aside there are tremendous economic opportunities for businesses in China. However, there are also obstacles and pitfalls. One of the areas of concern is with respect to the protection of intellectual property. A few statistics (what article is useful without statistics?): There were over 1,000,000 new trade-mark and patent application filed in China in 2005. The number of patent applications was over 475,000. This level of activity is on par with both the European Office and the USA Patent and Trade-mark Office.
This is all well and good. However, there are the pitfalls - enforcement remains the primary issue in China. Also of concern is the ability to obtain damage awards in cases where intellectual property infringement is proved. Having said all that, intellectual property protection is becoming increasingly important in China for a variety of reasons including membership in that so-called holy grail of economic ascendance - the WTO. China has been working towards revision of it's laws with respect to intellectual property protection. Moreover Chinese courts have been clarifying the interpretation of China's intellectual property laws all of which help top foster an environment which is more conductive to trade and commerce.
The Chinese response to change (in the sense of legislative change and/or macroeconomic change) has been somewhat (and continues to be somewhat) mixed. For example, China has recognized the problems with and is dealing with spam and illegal text messages (view article here). On the other hand, China is having a rough go of it with respect to such issues as reform of real property (land) law (view article here). Socialism and capitalism are, as is evident, still finding it difficult to be bedfellows.
At the end of the day (to use an old saying ) you should be looking towards China as an opportunity but should also be aware of the risks associated with that opportunity. With your eyes open, you can plan for and attempt to minimize the risks
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