Recent Developments And Routes For Enforcing Intellectual Property Rights In China

Article by Aaron Wininger and Peiyu Sun

China's growing population of over 1.3 billion potential consumers, coupled with their rapidly growing disposable income, is becoming a huge marketplace for products protected by intellectual property laws (IP). The disposable income of Beijing urban residents reached 17,653 yuan per capita (over $2,200 USD) in 2005. China has also become one of the world's main manufacturing bases for products protected by IP laws. Further, China's GDP reached over $8 trillion (USD) in 2005, based on purchasing power parity. As such, based on these numbers alone, the opportunity, occurrences, and profitability of IP infringement in China is steadily on the rise.