Intellectuar Property Rights in China :: Laws Technology Piracy Essays

Intellectuar Property Rights in China In recent years, the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in China has received enormous international attention. Over the past several decades, China has work slowly but steadily toward better intellectual property rights (IPR) protection. China has strengthened its legal framework and amended its IPR laws numerous times to extend the scope of protection. Currently, China IPR laws are well in line with the global IPR standards. For the rest of this paper, I would give a brief history of IPR laws, Chinafs efforts toward enforcing its IPR laws, the ethical analysis of piracy, and the solution to help reduce piracy. Software Piracy According to Business Software Alliance, about 94% of all the software currently used in China is illegally copy. This represent a three percent increased from 1991.1 Software piracy is flourishing in countries such as China, Hong Kong, and Vietnam. Software piracy rate is escalated; thus robbing the global marketplace of hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions in wages and tax revenue. It is estimated that piracy had caused about $11.8 billion losses worldwide.2 In addition, software piracy may become a barrier to innovation and product development around the world because piracy decreases the incentives and motivations for companies to research and develop new products. History of Chinafs IPR laws Since 1978, China has gradually improved its efforts toward protecting the IPR laws. Part of the improvement in IPR protection is due to the tremendous amount of pressure that the United States and other developing companies put on the Chinese government forcing it to comply with the global IPR standards. China has joined many international IPR conventions/organizations such as World Intellectual Property Organization, Paris Convention for the Protection of Intellectual Property, and Universal Copyright Convention.3 By joining these conventions/organizations, China hopes to learn more about IPR laws, and thus able to incorporate them into its own IPR laws. Between 1980-1995, China has also passed patent, copyright, trademark laws, and computer software regulations, and unfair competition law. Some of these laws have been amended several times to extend the scope of protection. Recently, China successfully entered into the World Trade Organization (WTO). Its entry into the WTO s howed that China is seriously committed to the protection of IPR because now China needs to strengthen its legal framework and amended its IPR laws to comply with the WTO Agreement on Traded-Related Aspect of Intellectual