The World Trademark Review, in its article, "Research reveals increased US confidence in China’s rights enforcement regime," [subscription required for full article] just came out with a story on a recent US-China Business Council (USCBC) survey finding that US brand owners are becoming less concerned with IP rights enforcement in China. IP is now only number seven on a list of the "Top 10 issues," way down from first place in 2005.
China Law Blog's own Steve Dickinson is quoted on how trademarks are actually pretty well enforced in China these days:
Steve Dickinson, a partner at Harris & Moure, told WTR that, following entry into the World Trade Organization, China has “made remarkable progress in enforcement of trademark and patent rights”, but warned: “The same is not true of copyright, and this is where considerable problems still continue. The rate of copying has not really declined.”Steve goes on to say that the proposed changes in China's Trademark Law did not likely factor into the survey results:
However, Dickinson is unsure whether this [the proposed trademark law changes] will have an impact on confidence over the next year: “Most people are unaware of the amendments. Moreover, the changes are not really focused on enforcement and people who have been in China for some time have learned not to rely on changes in legislation. It is never clear when a law will be adopted or what the final version will say. Many proposed laws are changed dramatically in the final version, so we have to wait and see what is adopted.”
The article goes on to talk about how the proposed changes in China's trademark laws will only make things better.
For more on how IP protection in China is improving, check out "Piracy In China. T'Ain't No Big Thing."