U.S. Claims Victory Over China in WTO Piracy Dispute

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 27, 2009 - 12:41pm.

Washington - The U.S. Trade Representative is claiming victory over China in a World Trade Organization dispute over the country's protection of intellectual property, and the unauthorized sale of copyrighted and counterfeit goods in the country. "Today, a WTO panel found that a number of deficiencies in China's IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) regime are incompatible with its WTO obligations," acting U.S. Trade Representative Peter Allgeier said in a statement. "Having achieved this significant legal ruling, we will engage vigorously with China on appropriate corrective actions to ensure that U.S. rights holders obtain the benefits of this decision."

Specifically, the WTO found that China is not living up to trade agreements by requiring that foreign movies and music be approved by state censors before they are eligible for copyright protection.

It also took China to task for allowing counterfeit goods seized by authorities to be resold after simply removing the fake trademarks.

The WTO did not, however, agree with the U.S. argument that China's threshold for bringing cases against counterfeiters and copyright infringers was set too high.

"As we strengthen our work on domestic intellectual property rights, we will continue to promote international exchanges and cooperation, in order to encourage the healthy development of trade relations," Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesman Yao Jian told Reuters.