Copyright and Trademark Infringements in China

China is a country that is known for it’s fake goods. When in search of an items that is made to imitate the original and sold for a much lower price, then China would be a place you would think of right away. The items that are fakes and copied in China vary tremendously, from DVDs to books, to cars and fashion items, all the way to medications and food products as well. The nature of this business of fake goods has now become such a massive problem, that there are many health risks that are involved now. People are prone to purchasing fake rice that is made of plastic, as well as medications which are not the medicines they claim to be on the box they are in either.

Now when it comes to Copyright and Trademark, the areas that these two cover are intellectual works such as films, music and books, whereas trademark deals with protection of a company logo and it’s brand. Many infringement cases of both are found in China, and while the illegal sales of both DVDs and CDs is common, the new aspect that has been introduced into the market is the theft of company logos.

"Land Wind" a copy of Land Rover Evoque

 The example of this would be cars which have been made to be exact replicas of the original vehicles. For example, the buyer may buy a Chinese car named “Land Wind” but in essence, it is the same design as that of Land Rover. However, what the companies do no reveal is that they offer a service at their shops where they are able to exchange the logo of their company and place the Land Rover logo on the car instead. This method of business ensures that they are able to operate and if the officials don’t know about this option of adding the Land Rover logo, then they cannot place a criminal charge on the company. In fact, Jaguar has sued the Chinese company for making the exact replica of the Land Rover Evoque due to the close similarity between the two vehicles (Article on the Jaguar court case).

Fake Apple shop on the streets of China

Another example of Trademark infringement is that of Apple where many unlicensed Apple stores are located all around China. What is interesting in this case is that these are shops that are standing in broad daylight and are clearly visible to the authorities that may walk by. The shop is also unable to relocate so they are there permanently. However, even despite their inability to hide, they are still able to conduct business normally.

Copyright laws, Patents, Trademarks are all laws that are being infringed upon in China on a large scale and yet the government isn’t taking a strong enough of an action to catch those response for the infringement of these intellectual works. Often times the shops selling stolen intellectual property is right on the street and in plain view, yet no action is taken against this. Not to mention cars that look exactly the same as those of other well known companies such as Bentley or Land Rover.