Incurable or Remediable - Clues to Undoing the Gordian Knot Tied by Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement in China

This Article seeks to capture the significance and dilemmas associated with the intellectual property rights (IPRs) protection in China and to demystify the mysteries of the enforcement problems. It assesses shortcomings of the IPR enforcement and sheds new light on enforcement problems by exploring and explicating various obstacles associated with IPRs enforcement. The Author argues that China’s cultural uniqueness, institutional impediments and economic insufficiency formed knotty points of the enforcement deficiency. Apart from the common reason of insufficient economic development, the IPRs enforcement problem in China is a unique political phenomenon resulting from the systemic dystrophy fundamental to Chinese institutional development. The goal of IPRs enforcement in China is thus achieved, in a great measure, through political advocacy rather than a legal process. In this scenario, the West should find ways to identify real problems and resolve specific difficulties without merely displacing their Chinese counterparts elsewhere. Having identified issues of enforcement difficulties, this article summarizes a four-shift approach to mitigating the counterfeiting menace and undoing the Gordian Knot. The four-shift approach suggests that the West should try to foster and facilitate shifts of China to initiate a virtuous circle of improved IPRs protection