|
MORE men, more time, more resolve.
China has boosted its anti-piracy efforts as the economic powerhouse cleans house before staging the Olympics in August, according to a lawyer who has overseen some of the mainland's biggest piracy cases.
An example: While only one government bureau - the Administration for Industry and Commerce - handled intellectual property (IP) infringements 20 years ago, a host of departments has since been roped in to add muscle to the battle, Mr Tan Loke Khoon, a partner at law firm Baker & McKenzie in Hong Kong, told The Straits Times.
Some of these agencies include the Public Security Bureau, or police force, the Chinese Customs and the Technical Supervision Bureau.
'The mainland authorities are now sending bigger squads and more senior officers on raids and seizures, while going to great lengths to make special plans to nab the perpetrators,' Mr Tan said.
Over the past year, he noted, the courts have worked more swiftly to deal with cases and hand down judgments, cutting the time taken from as long as 18 months to 12 months or less.
Given that the history of IP laws in China is just over 21/2 decades long, the industry today is rather impressive, he said.
For instance, the new generation of IP officials are well-plugged into global industry standards, as reflected by court judgments that have been both swift and clear.
Numerous landmark cases have been recorded in recent years as momentum against piracy built up, with the Hong Kong-based Singaporean lawyer heading many of them.
The cases included the Silk Market tangle, when luxury brands such as Prada, Chanel, Gucci, Burberry and Louis Vuitton sued the infamous Beijing bazaar for selling imitations of their products.
They won when the Chinese courts held the landlord of the market responsible for the irregularities.
The ruling made owners of similar properties across the country sit up and take notice.
Then there was the Starbucks case. The Seattle-based chain sued a Shanghai cafe for using an identical Chinese name as well as a similar green-and-white logo. The court ordered the Shanghai cafe to, among other things, publish an apology in local newspapers.
At the same time, Starbucks' English and Chinese names were declared well-known trademarks.
Indeed, experts have urged the mainland to keep up such efforts in return for bigger economic rewards.
One study released last week by pirated-software watchdog Business Software Alliance and research firm International Data Corp estimated that a 10-percentage- point reduction in software piracy by 2011 would give China's IT industry an additional 355,000 jobs and US$1.6 billion (S$2.3 billion) in tax revenue, while contributing US$20.5 billion worth of economic growth.
It also found that the piracy rate in China has come down from a high of 92 per cent in 2003 to about 82 per cent in recent years.
But while that is encouraging, the nation can ill afford to let up in what Mr Tan calls a 'year of reckoning'.
He said priority action would have to be taken against fakes that cause harm, such as exploding phone batteries, poisonous milk powder and faulty brake pads.
'Everyone is worried about the weather and the pollution index (before the Olympics), but equally there are very serious concerns about how clean and fair the marketplace will be in terms of IP pollution,' Mr Tan said.
'These are questions which will linger long after the Games are over.'
vincec@sph.com.sg
|
