Zhengqing Zhang, Intellectual Property Rights in China (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019) 298 P. $54.58 Hardback

Excerpt

One of the most contentious issues involving the engagement of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the global economy of trade and international finance, intellectual property rights (IPR) is exceedingly complex especially for an economy with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $14.4 trillion in 2019, rated the second largest in the world. Addressing the issue directly and avoiding the simplicities of media coverage, especially in the United States, where too often the PRC is portrayed as the international “bad guy” on all IPR matters, big and small, the author of this volume provides a cogent and generally objective, easy-to-understand analysis of highly technical economic, financial, and political topics. Breaking the IPR issue into its component parts of patents, copyright, and trademarks, the book follows a basic framework of tracking the formulation of state policy on each of these three issue areas followed by an inside look at policy implementation involving the complex and sometimes contradictory machinations of government and commercial actors and agencies in China’s hybrid economic system of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private companies. Drawing on extensive and wide-ranging interviews with PRC government officials in the IPR and Customs bureaucracy along with Chinese and foreign businessmen, attorneys, and even street peddlers, the author provides insight into the nitty-gritty world of IPR protection and enforcement in a country that has undergone a fundamental transformation from a serial IPR abuser to an internationally standard IPR regime. Ongoing and sometimes colorful problems of enforcement are examined, especially at the local level where laws and regulations hit the road of everyday commercial activity in a cutthroat, highly competitive environment. …