Thursday, April 12, 2007

Cooperation Instead of Conflict Urges James Tunkey of I-OnAsia About the WTO Case

James Tunkey, I-OnAsia's COO International, was not amused about the United States' filing of dispute settlement cases at the WTO involving China's IPR regime.

Tunkey: "Counterfeiting is a global problem whose solution necessitates international cooperation. Counterfeit products are manufactured in many countries. Indeed, the largest and most damaging counterfeit operations are truly global. Funding, technical expertise, access to raw materials as well as supply chain and product distribution management often all come from outside China."

"The increasing sophistication of these global networks presents a number of enforcement challenges. How do governments and companies muster the necessary resources to combat counterfeiters that operate across multiple borders, aided by the Internet?"

"[I]t is I-OnAsia's assessment that the answer is cooperation not dispute, and that a shift of the bilateral dialog from conflict to problem resolution is essential."

Read James Tunkey of I-OnAsia's comment on the WTO case here.

The software and pharmaceutical industriues in the US that recently booked some progress regarding IP protection are also against a WTO case. See here. They have something too lose, while the film, music and book industries have hardly any serious market access, so they do not have to fear retaliatory actions.

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