International Management: Enforcing Protection of Foreign Intellectual Property in China

Over the last few years, China has escalated as a marketplace for Australian business and for higher education, with 55,000 Chinese mainland students officially recorded in 2003 (DEST, 2005). On the 18/4/05, China and Australia signed a formal statement of interest for commencing negotiations on a free-trade agreement, one which could eventually have wide repercussions for both business and education sectors (Taylor and Sutherland, 2005; DFAT, 2006). Already, a fast-moving China is transforming Australia (Dusevic, 2005). Consequently, we need to better understand the intellectual property (IP) issues confronting us in China, whilst exploiting its exciting opportunities, including its culture of education (Dusevic, 2005). This paper, therefore, considers a variety of issues impinging on evolution and enforcement of IP in China, taking note of key variables such as history, culture, politics and attitudes to law more broadly. It then examines current issues confronting IP protection. The paper concludes that understanding factors affecting enforcement are central to dealing with ongoing challenges to Australian business and education of China’s piracy and counterfeiting.