Costs hamper war against counterfeiters
Shoppers at the new Silk Alley Plaza know that the 200 yuan North Face jackets they are buying are pirated.
'It costs the same for manufacturers to print Mickey Mouse or the Monkey King, but foreigners want to buy Mickey Mouse,' said a young woman vendor, pointing at a colourful backpack for children.
She also sells fake Louis Vuitton handbags and wallets, which were supposed to have been discontinued after authorities restricted the sale of luxury goods to department stores.
'For a while we put the handbags under the counter,' she said, adding that business in the spring tourist season was now too brisk to hide them.
He said reforms introduced since China joined the World Trade Organisation in 2001 had resulted in a legal framework that was in 'almost perfect' compliance with the trade group's Trade-related Agreement on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).
However, the rampant counterfeiting and piracy showed there were glaring deficiencies in IPR enforcement.
Mr Tao pointed out that local governments treated IPR infringements as a low priority and even when the law was enforced, penalties were light.
Many multinational companies retain private firms at considerable cost to investigate trademark violations and often have to pay 'fees' or 'rewards' to enforcement authorities. Expenses for transport, storage and disposal of the seized goods adds to the cost.
Mr Tao said one way to check piracy was to link officials' performance to their achievements in IPR protection.
But he said this was unlikely to happen because local economies often depended on counterfeiting.
