Chinese Attitudes toward Intellectual Property Rights-Change and Continuity

Heidi (Ge) Hai, Peter A. Dutton and Jerome A. Cohen
Additional contact information
Heidi (Ge) Hai: School of Law, New York University, New York, USA
Peter A. Dutton: Professor and Director, China Maritime Studies Institute at the U.S. Naval War College
Jerome A. Cohen: Professor of Law Emeritus, School of Law, New York University, New York, USA

American Journal of Trade and Policy, 2022, vol. 9, issue 2, 59-70

Abstract: Intellectual property has been central to Sino-US disputes in the past decades. The US government has taken various measures to compel China to enforce IP rights (IPR) protection in conformity with what would be acceptable by US standards, only to find differences persisting and these IPR disputes far from resolved. To better understand the tension between China and the US over IPR protection, this note provides a historical analysis of China’s IPR development from Late Qing to today, focusing on the changes and continuities in Chinese attitudes toward IPR across different periods. Without indigenous concepts of IPR, China was forced to accept western standards at a time of military and political weakness and has consequently remained vigilant against foreign domination in this field. However, China also gradually developed a genuine appreciation for modern IPR to the degree that would benefit China's economic development and status in the global community. A normative judgment on China's IPR protection would frustrate efforts at dispute resolution by assuming US standards of IPR protection as universally ideal. As China and the US continue to cooperate in trade and technology, mutual understanding and appreciation of a shared set of IP standards would be essential.

Keywords: Intellectual Property; China; Sino-US; IPR; Copyright; Trademark; Patent; Legal History; International Law (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://abc.us.org/ojs/index.php/ajtp/article/view/621/1137 Full text (application/pdf)

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:ris:ajotap:0013

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Trade and Policy is currently edited by Charles A. Rarick

More articles in American Journal of Trade and Policy from Asian Business Consortium Asian Business Consortium, 10-B-6, Darussalam Tower, Mirpur Road, Dhaka-1216, Bangladesh.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Alim Al Ayub Ahmed ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).