China and intellectual property rights: A challenge to the rule of law

James Brander, Victor Cui and Ilan Vertinsky ()
Additional contact information
Victor Cui: University of Manitoba
Ilan Vertinsky: University of British Columbia

Journal of International Business Studies, 2017, vol. 48, issue 7, No 6, 908-921

Abstract: Abstract China is not meeting its international obligations to protect intellectual property rights (IPRs), harming the innovation process in China and elsewhere. We review the benefits of IPR protection and discuss the magnitude and cost of China’s IPR violations. We also emphasize that these violations undermine the international rule of law and impair China’s legitimacy as a leader in evolving global governance institutions. We criticize the argument that China will endogenously improve IPR protection due to internal pressures from its domestic IP sector as the United States and some other countries did in the past. China’s governance institutions are very different from those of the liberal Western democracies, past and present, as China has a weak internal rule of law, a fragmented governance system, and cultural traditions that favor collective over individual rights. As China’s IP sector develops, its IPR governance regime might even be used as a strategic tool to further disadvantage foreign IPR holders. We argue that China should play a lead role in any international IPR reforms but that it must first establish legitimacy by meeting its current international IPR commitments. We conclude that other countries should take action to pressure China to meet its IPR obligations.

Keywords: intellectual property rights; innovation; rule of law; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (49)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41267-017-0087-7 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:jintbs:v:48:y:2017:i:7:d:10.1057_s41267-017-0087-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... nt/journal/41267/PS2

DOI: 10.1057/s41267-017-0087-7

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of International Business Studies is currently edited by John Cantwell

More articles in Journal of International Business Studies from Palgrave Macmillan, Academy of International Business
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().