This year's World Intellectual Property Day on April 26 focused on celebrating innovation and promoting respect for intellectual property (IP). In his message to mark the eighth World IP Day, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO, of which China is also a member state) director general Dr. Kamil Idris hailed the growing popularity of World IP Day, and explained what IP has to do with the really big issues like global warming or the things that add spice to life:

Without Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), many new technologies developed to tackle global problems would never see the light of day and the great sporting events, which entertain and unite us, would not be broadcast into homes across the globe.

With the added significance of the greatest sporting event taking place in China this year, China's role in protecting the things that add spice to life remains a hot issue. To illustrate its achievements as well as its determination with IPR, China welcomed IP Day this year by means of a Book Burning, where as many as 47 million pieces of pirated and illegal publications were destroyed across China.

Despite the evident importance attached to protecting IP in China (IPR guidelines were last month approved by the State Council in lieu of a national strategy) and the series of campaigns launched in recent years against crimes related to the infringement of copyrights, trademarks and patent rights (more than 4,300 people were tried and convicted on IPR infringements in 2007), the 'Special 301 Report' on the global state of IP (annually produced by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative) described China as troublesome for failing to protect U.S. patents and copyrights. From an article at Industry Week, the Special 301 Report emphasized China's overbearing role in a sophisticated global counterfeiting network (citing estimates from U.S. copyright industries that up to 95% of their members' products sold in China are pirated), and attributed this to inadequate IP rights enforcement and high criminal thresholds in China. (See also Business Week on the fifth annual Global PC Software Piracy Study and its findings on the pronounced rates of software piracy in second and third-tier Chinese cities).

European Commission president Jose Barroso in March claimed that China is the source of 80% of all fake goods in the world, and while acclaiming the concrete steps taken by the Chinese government to rein in rampant counterfeiting in China, State Intellectual Property Office spokesman Yin Xintian acknowledged last month the uphill struggle against piracy in China, where an IPR protection system has only existed for a relatively short time of about 20 years. Yet as China Esquire urges, China's apparent predominance in global IP violations should be seen in the context of its large population, and in fact the Chinese government should be commended for its determination to enforce IP regulations:

Yes, there is always much more to do. But we are talking about stemming a flood...It will take a LONG time before IP is as highly regarded as it is in America... But for now, can we just applaud the government's efforts?

And for now, moreover, the U.S.-China Business Council recommends (link from Thomasnet.com) any successful China IP protection strategy to have both defensive and offensive elements, with companies required to combine all the necessary preventive measures (i.e. rigorous auditing, educating of employees and speedy registering of works) with devoting time and resources to detecting violations and taking legal action, because

A company's legal rights mean little in China unless the company chooses to protect them.