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 行业新闻：China's IP baby sitter （转贴） |
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安普若
[博客]
[个人文集]
头衔: 海归元勋
声望: 大师
性别: 
加入时间: 2004/02/21
文章: 26038
来自: 中国美国的飞机上
海归分: 4196257
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作者：安普若 在 海归商务 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
China's IP baby sitter
Who's going to stand between pirated CDs and billions in revenue losses? Mark Cohen, the United States' newly appointed "intellectual property attaché" to China. But this isn't a one-man job.
September 16, 2004
As of Monday, Hollywood has a man in Beijing.
With the aim of beating back a plague of music and movie piracy in China, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced its first "intellectual property attaché," attorney-advisor Mark Cohen.
An outsider in a country where nine out of 10 CDs are pirated, and 95 percent of DVDs are counterfeit, Mr. Cohen has a tough job ahead. If he is successful, he will save the entertainment and software industries billions.
The music industry isn't the only one complaining. The lack of a strong intellectual property rights culture in China is responsible for $2.6 billion worth of total losses annually for the motion picture, recording, software, and publishing industries of America, according to various trade organizations (see chart).
“Although there are countries with higher rates of piracy, China is perhaps the most serious problem,” said Eric Smith, president of the Washington, D.C.-based International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) coalition representing six trade associations and 1,300 companies that deal in copyrighted materials, like Sony and Warner Brothers.
“In countries like Fiji, the rates of copyright piracy may be up to 100 percent, but few people want to do business in these countries," Mr. Smith added. "People, however, want to do business in China.”
Mr. Cohen is charged with providing in-country support to curb intellectual property crime and strengthen enforcement. This is the first time that his group has appointed an official overseas to improve IP protection in a specific enforcement. But industry officials think it will take more than this to fix the huge problem. They add that any change in the Chinese attitude towards intellectual property has to come from within.
“I wouldn’t characterize the appointment of Mark Cohen a big step,” said Mr. Smith. “It is important, certainly, but the initiative clearly rests with the Chinese government.”
Damage control
The motion picture industry lost $178 million between 2002 and 2003 due to copyright piracy in China. The U.S. music industry lost $286 million annually in that period.
The business software industry suffered $1.5 billion in losses during that time, with a piracy level of 92 percent, while the entertainment software industry lost $568.2 million, with a piracy level of 96 percent.
These figures represent some of the highest rates of copyright piracy in the world. According to the Business Software Association, a Washington, D.C.-based software trade association, China is responsible for half of all software piracy in Asia and roughly one-eighth of all pirated software in the world.
And the volume of piracy increases at a staggering rate. According to a USPTO spokesperson, Chinese-made pirated goods made up 16 percent of the total contraband goods seized at the U.S. border. That figure has since risen to 60 percent.
Hard to crack
“It’s difficult to paint a rosy picture of the intellectual property rights scene in China, especially for foreign companies,” said Jonathan Lemberg, a partner at San Francisco-based law firm Morrison & Foerster, and an expert in investments in China. “The law in theory is very robust, but the Chinese have some serious problems when it comes to enforcement.”
The U.S. has long been a stringent critic of China’s IP policy. On Thursday, U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Grant Aldonas said in a press briefing in Beijing that while the Chinese administration was sincere about IP protection, he still didn’t see the rate of piracy going down.
One culprit of the lax enforcement, said Mr. Smith, is the Chinese government. It is unwilling to interfere in an established system, even though it is patently illegal.
“We’re talking at least 90 percent of the intellectual property market here,” he said. “Imagine the amount of employment it provides to poor people in the villages who are making fake handbags and the like.”
Mr. Smith believes that the Chinese government could shut down this illegal industry if it wanted to, but can’t do it overnight.
“I firmly believe that it is a question of ‘when’ and not ‘if,’” he said. “The piracy has to stop – it will stop, for the benefit of all of us. But the Chinese government realizes it can’t overhaul this industry now, if nothing else but for the massive dislocation and job loss it will cause.”
Mr. Lemberg thinks that the situation is getting better, and that’s because the Chinese now are beginning to create their homegrown intellectual property.
“The fact that Chinese companies have begun to create original content is a good sign,” he said. “It means that they will think more about adequate safeguards for their intellectual property. And that in turn means that Chinese society will begin to respect the intellectual property culture.”
Recent signs also are encouraging. In March, Wu Yi, the Chinese Vice-Premier, promised that China would strive to improve its intellectual property rights situation. Earlier this month, the Chinese government claimed it had recovered 2 million pirated CDs in a widespread crackdown.
According to Mr. Lemberg, the country realizes that it has no choice in the matter.
“If the Chinese want to attract more foreign investment, they will be serious about dealing with IP theft,” he said.
作者：安普若 在 海归商务 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
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 行业新闻：China's IP baby sitter （转贴） -- 安普若 - (5693 Byte) 2004-9-21 周二, 11:53 (1348 reads)
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