Przestrzeganie praw własności intelektualnej w Chinach po przystąpieniu do Światowej Organizacji Handlu

IPR PROTECTION IN CHINA AFTER THE ACCESSION TO THE WTO

The People’s Republic of China is commonly seen as a country having a very low standard of protection of intellectual property rights. Some commentators say that the Chinese government wittingly accepts this fact viewing it as profi table for the country as an opportunity of developing the Chinese industry on the basis of already existing and verifi ed technological solutions.
China’s access to the World Trade Organisation on 11th December 2001 meant that it also had to adhere to provisions of the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs Agreement), a document creating a minimum standard of protection for different kinds of intellectual property rights.
Already existing legal provisions of the Chinese legislation had to be adapted to TRIPs standards and certain new measures had to be undertaken. Moreover, a number of steps were taken by the Chinese authorities, from establishing new institutions and special courts up to campaigns promoting the protection of intellectual property rights in the society.
Notwithstanding the remarkable efforts made by Chinese authorities in a relatively short period of time the marketshare of products infringing intellectual property rights in China is still enormous, there is admittedly some improvement, visible on the basis of objectively collected and analysed data. One should also note that further development of the Chinese economy, based on research and development of new technologies, requires the Chinese authorities to guarantee a high level of protection for intellectual property rights.