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Thomas, Kristie --- "The Fight Against Piracy: Working Within the Administrative Enforcement System in China" [2007] ELECD 200; in Torremans, Paul; Shan, Hailing; Erauw, Johan (eds), "Intellectual Property and TRIPS Compliance in China" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: Intellectual Property and TRIPS Compliance in China

Editor(s): Torremans, Paul; Shan, Hailing; Erauw, Johan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845428754

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: The Fight Against Piracy: Working Within the Administrative Enforcement System in China

Author(s): Thomas, Kristie

Number of pages: 22

Extract:

4. The fight against piracy:
working within the administrative
enforcement system in China
Kristie Thomas*

INTRODUCTION
The system of intellectual property (IP) protection in China is frequently the
focus of criticism for China's trade partners. Following China's accession to
the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December 2001, China must now
comply with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights (TRIPS). As a result, China undertook a radical overhaul of its intel-
lectual property legislation, beginning before accession in the late 1990s,
including major revisions of the Patent Law in August 2000 and the
Trademark Law and Copyright Law in October 2001. The substantive legal
provisions are now widely judged to be of `international standard'.1
However, there are still various criticisms made of the intellectual property
system in China, but the focus of these criticisms has now shifted to the struc-
tures that exist to enforce the substantive rights provided by the legislation. It
is commonly concluded that `protection for intellectual property remains
closer to rhetoric than reality'.2 In order to understand these criticisms of the
enforcement system in China, it is necessary first to understand the nature of
the IP enforcement system in China and the continuing prevalence of admin-
istrative enforcement within that system.
This chapter will begin with an overview of the IP enforcement system in
China, in order to show the difficult choices facing rights holders trying to
protect their IP in China and the central role of administrative enforcement


* ...