One of my favorite topics, intellectual property protection and perception. I’ve spoken about this subject twice in the last couple of weeks, and it took at least five minutes before the audience fell asleep - that’s pretty good as these things go.

Blogger appears to be working this week, so I was able to pay a visit to IP Dragon via straightforward means. A post from last Thursday on whether things are improving in IP enforcement here caught my eye; no position was taken, but two viewpoints were presented from the press (a Taiwan paper and China Daily - you can guess which viewpoint was express in which publication).

There is indeed a “right” answer to the question of whether IP protection is getting better or worse in China. Unfortunately, there are so many variables that would go into assessment that no one, it seems to me, really has the data to support their particular viewpoint. To make things worse, there are too many agendas out there from too many people with vested interests. Here’s a sample:

1. Foreign trade/business associations - usually pushing the negative viewpoint. Members get riled up, lobby governments, use association research and speakers to do so. Associations look very useful in the process. If the association is in a special industry (e.g. entertainment), they might have a very skewed view of IP infringement as a whole.

2. Foreign governments - like to use IP as a stick with which to hit China and get concessions in other areas. Threatening WTO action is quite popular these days. The issue is convenient because everyone understands it enough to get mad, but not enough to question the inflated rhetoric.

3. IP practitioners (e.g. yours truly) - usually we fall into one of two categories. There are agencies/law firms that handle IP registrations who have a vested interest in “selling” the idea that China’s IP enforcement system is doing just fine. If you think things are hopeless over here, you won’t register any IP at all, and that would hit ‘em where it hurts. The other group includes law firms and investigation companies that want to scare you into thinking IP enforcement is horrible over here so enterprises will spend oodles of money in an attempt to clean the market of fake products. [no surprise, neither one of these positions is entirely correct]

4. Academics - this one is kind of a stretch, but I think academics are so wrapped up in the significant legal reforms that have been made over the past seven years that they fail to see what goes on with enforcement. Academics see real progress, in their areas of expertise, and that’s all that matters.

5. Chinese government - this doesn’t really need explanation, does it?

I probably missed a group out there, but there you go. Tough to get a straight answer from folks like that, right? Depending on who you’re listening to, you might be getting a very one-sided account of things.