National Campaign to "Crack Down" on Intellectual Property Rights ("IPRs") Violations: Economic Development through Improved IPR Enforcement

Background on the Campaign

High rates of intellectual property rights ("IPRs") infringement in China have in recent years been of increasing concern to foreign and domestic rights holders alike. Though, as China is a developing country, such high rates of infringement are, arguably, to some extent an economic structural issue, these infringements are seen as an impediment to China's economic growth prospects. Furthermore, China has an obligation as a signatory of TRIPs (Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) to maintain an effective regime for the protection of IPRs.

With these issues and others to consider the P.R.C. government recently announced a national campaign (herein referred to as the "Campaign") whereby it will "crack down" on infringers of intellectual property rights¹. The focus of the Campaign, which will last the six months from October 2010 to March 2011, will encompass a broad range of infringing activities, including