#3 CHINA: Intellectual Property Rights

Formally, intellectual property rights have been acknowledged and protected in China since the 1980s. In 2001, China became a member of the world trade organization. A premise of this was that China had to address some international concerns about its IPR system.

Despite of this, some concerns remain. President Trump has repeatedly called out China for theft of intellectual property. In various reports on doing business in China, such as the 2016 China Business Climate Survey Report of the American Chamber of Commerce, IPR is still seen as a challenge to doing business.

At the same time, there are signs that IPR is not the biggest issue at hand anymore. After all, Chinese companies are also getting more and more innovative and require protection. Since 2019, China filed the most patents via the World Intellectual Property Right Patent Cooperation Treaty, taking over the US. 

The German Chamber of Commerce did a survey on the biggest challenges for foreign companies active in China. They found out that Intellectual Property Rights Protection was a challenge for 30% of respondents. This was only the sixth concern, and a lot less than for example Human Resources, with 70%.

To discuss intellectual property rights in China, we'll be speaking with Reinout van Malenstein. He is senior counsel at HFG Lawyers in Shanghai. He has been a lawyer both in China and in the Netherlands, after studying law in Utrecht and in Beijing. He is fluent in Chinese and legal Chinese. Next to his position at HFG, he is also vice chair at the European Chamber Intellectual Property Working Group, and secretary of the China team at Marques.