China’s Weak IP Protection Hampers Foreign Investment, Says US Secretary Of Commerce.

 

Pritzker visited China as part of a delegation of clean tech companies, the Financial Times said.

 

"The real conversation needs to be not just about the laws on the books but also about the court system and the broad and consistent application of these rules," she said, according to the Financial Times.

 

Concerns about the Chinese legal system and the security of intellectual property are a barrier to foreign companies looking at the Chinese market, Pritzker said.

 

China opened an intellectual property rights (IPR) court in the city of Guangzhou, in southern China’s Guangdong province, in December 2014, the second in the country. The first was set up in Beijing in November 2014, and a third opened in Shanghai in January, according to ECNS, the English-language website of China News Service (CNS).

 

The World Trade Organisation, in its fifth 'Trade Policy Review' of China in 2014, called on China to address “shortcomings”, including a commitment to publish "in a single official journal" all laws, regulations and other measures related to or affecting trade in goods, services, intellectual property rights or foreign exchange, and to make them available in one of the WTO’s three official languages of English, French and Spanish.

 

References:

 

Please click the link below for more information.

 

World Trade Organisation, fifth 'Trade Policy Review' of China (200-page / 1.37 MB PDF)

 

 

For further information, please contact:

 

Iain Conner, Partner, Pinsent Masons

iain.connor@pinsentmasons.com

 

Rebecca Milton, Pinsent Masons

rebecca.mitton@pinsentmasons.com