IP in China

[Henry C.K. Liu]

Intellectual pproperty is a serious and controversial issue.
The reason intellectural pirating is so widely practiced by most less advanced
economies, China being only the latest to join the club, early America
participated until it became technologically matured, is that there is a
widespread view that the current intellectual property rights regime is not fair
toward late comers.
China, for example wants to claimed retroactive IP rights on the compass,
gunpower, paper-making, the mechanacial calculation etc, for a period of 50
years starting now, to compensate for her historical loss due to the absence of
an international IP regime during her epoch of high inventiveness.
The legal argument of this position is that one should be able to claim IP right
for 50 years at any time in history and not just from the date of registration.
When a law is unjust, it invites widespread disobedience or converse, the degree
to which a law is disobeyed reflects its fairness.
How about an international affirmative action program for IP for ancient
cultures.
Or across the board IP amnesty for Third World for 50 years?
It will speed up global development and the advanced economies will also
benefit more than they will lose.

Henry C.K. Liu

Rob Schaap wrote:


> Copyright is a tough one.