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U.S. Has Divided Success in WTO Complaint Over IP Enforcement In China
In a landmark ruling by a panel of the World Trade Organization delivered on January 26, 2009, China’s intellectual property regime was found to have fallen short on a number of its WTO obligations. In 2007, the U.S. launched a WTO complaint against China out of frustration over what it considered to be lax enforcement of IP rights in that country. The WTO panel hearing the complaint ruled that China’s practice of denying copyright protection for movies, music and books not approved by state censors was a violation of the WTO rules. The panel also ruled that it was impermissible for China to authorize public auctions of counterfeit goods seized by customs officials, even after ordering the removal of brands and trademarks from the goods. However, the U.S. was unable to convince the panel that pirates have no fear of criminal prosecution due to China’s high threshold for prosecuting cases of criminal copyright infringement and counterfeit. Despite this divided success, representatives of the U.S. government and media industries applauded the ruling as affirming the principle that IP enforcement must be effective not only in law but in practice.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/26/AR2009012601954.html