Posted: Thursday, July 03, 2008, 1:38PM
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"Governance"
China shakes up IP laws
China is tightening its intellectual property laws relating to foreign companies operating within its borders. Under the new laws companies making discoveries in the country will be obliged to file for a patent in China first or face the danger of losing legal protection of their intellectual property.
A patent law expert in China told the Financial Times that the new laws would make it "more challenging" for foreign companies inventing in the country, and comes at a time when an increasing number of firms, Microsoft among them, are setting up research centres within Chinese borders in an attempt to expand their sales within the market.
At present, most companies that invent in China file for patent in the country in which they are based, and there have been incidences of foreign companies sending Chinese inventors to work in their home country to stop the passing of any information relating to patents falling into competitors' hands.
However, despite the plans, doubts exist as to whether the Chinese legal system will be able to cope with the demands placed upon it.
"The market is not quite ready in terms of the supply of high-level legal skills," Tony Chen of Jones Day, a law firm, told the FT.
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