32 Senators Urge Vice-Premier State Council to Fix IPR and Indigenous Innovation Policy in China

32 U.S. senators have sent an open letter to Wang Qishan, China's Vice-Premier of the State Council. They urge him to use the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) to address the problems U.S. companies face in regard to:

• Intellectual Property Rights in China;
• China's policy to favour indigenous innovation and not signing the World Trade Organization's Government Procurement Agreement.

Evidently the trade organisation that was created to advance the interests of the software industry Business Software Alliance (BSA) was quite successful in putting their case on the agenda:

"The United States has been raising this issue for many years, and China has repeatedly committed to take steps to address U.S. concerns. For example, in 2006, China committed in the JCCT to ensure that Chinese government agencies and state-owned enterprises use only licensed software. But China has failed to implement this commitment. We urge China to implement this commitment on a timely basis, and in a transparent manner that allows IPR holders to verify the legitimacy of the software used by these entities."

Read the bipartisan letter on the Fair Currency Coalition Blog here.

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USCC 2010 Report Released

2010 Report to [the U.S.] Congress of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Commission (USCC) has been released. The report is 324 pages long and IP Dragon will read those parts relevant to intellectual property in China, including market access, in the coming weeks.

If you cannot wait read the 4 page opening remarks of Chairman Dan Slane and Vice Chairman (why not vice chairperson?) Carolyn Bartholomew on the report which includes information about indigenous innovation and procurement in China without applying the WTO Governement Procurement Agreement (GPA) rules (which is not that strange since its status is observer since February 21, 2002, not party, see here, Hong Kong is party June 19, 1997 and Taiwan July 15, 2009), a striking name for China's approach to internet control as "networked authoritarianism" and its take on the hijacking of U.S. internet traffic. Read here.

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19th US-China JCCT: What are the Concrete Measures?

September 16th US Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez and US Trade Representative Susan c. Schwab, together with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan convened the 19th US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT). Read the press release of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) here. 

What are the outcomes of this meeting?

The countries will hold regular meetings of the IPR Working Group; The IPR Working Group will continue to pursue cooperation activities;

More meetings between responsible officials regarding, China's patent law amendments, pharmaceutical data protection and the Memorandum of Cooperation on Strengthened Cooperation in Border Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, read more here.

 

The countries agreed to sign two IPR memoranda of understanding (MOUs), between the USPTO, US Copyright Office and China's National Copyrigth Administation and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, on strategic cooperation to improve the administration and effectiveness of copyright and trademark protection and enforcement, ASAP, but no later than the end of 2008.

Countries agreed to continue cooperation on healthcare. 

With respect to China's accession to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), China submitted to the WTO its responses to the Checklist of Issues on September 15, 2008, read more here. China's accession to the GPA would provide international companies access tot a 35 billion dollar per year governement procurement market in China. 

Head tip to Ms Eileen McDermott who wrote 'US and China cooperate on IP issues' for Managing Intellectual Property, read more here.  

Right, but what are the concrete measures?

There is nothing wrong with the US-China JCCT. But every year they triomphantly tell the media that they have agreed to hold new meetings and continue the cooperation. A memorandum of cooperation to strengthen cooperation on Border Enforcement of IPRs, is difficult to measure. Memoranda of understanding, which are only announced not even signed yet, are not really binding. This leaves the press release with one interesting item: that China committed to the WTO its responses to the Checklist of Issues, regarding the WTO Governement Procurement Agreement. The question is what was China's response.

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