Tian Lipu

Editor's Note: International concern about China's intellectual property rights (IPR) recently prompted the Chinese government to declare a six-month crackdown on imitation goods and copycat brands. Domestic policies are also aimed at strengthening IPR in order to promote national innovation. Do Chinese really lack an understanding of IPR? Or is IPR a tool that allows developed nations to put pressure on China? The Guangzhou-based 21st Century Business Herald newspaper interviewed Tian Lipu (Tian), director of the State Intellectual Property Office, on these issues.

Q: There are a lot of counterfeit products in the current market. What do you think of this phenomenon?

Tian: China's counterfeit products have begun to spread from electronics and information products to become a cultural phenomenon. It reflects a major flaw of traditional Chinese culture.

Chinese culture lacks constant respect for intellectual property. People believe that tangible property can be private, but intangible property is sharable. Intangible knowledge should be disseminated freely and help to reduce the cost of industrial development. We need to change this viewpoint.

In order to protect intellectual property rights, China has issued a series of policies and regulations, but the ideological orientation of the public has not been changed. This harmful aspect of traditional culture still lingers in modern society. From now on, we should encourage innovation in every way possible.

Q: Will stopping counterfeit products bring us in line with the principles of international intellectual property rights?

Tian: We can talk like this in theory, but we need to focus on more essential matters in practice. We must see that fake goods are universal.

It is inevitable that developing countries will follow developed countries in technological innovation. Without grasping core technologies, developing countries make some incremental innovation on the advanced technologies based on the requirements of local communities. Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong all went through such a period.

In fact, in practice we also find that some counterfeit products have better quality than genuine products. Thus, in this case, why not create their own brands? There is an adjustment problem in our industry incentive policies.

There is no clear boundary between the innovation of small enterprises in China and counterfeiting. When fighting against counterfeiting and fostering the seeds of innovation, we should have a realistic attitude.