Bring Us Your IP

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Thursday that the Chinese government encourages foreign companies to build more research and development centers in China. Wen made the remark at the opening session of the summer meeting of the World Economic Forum in northeast China's port city of Dalian. China encourages innovation and expects fast-growing companies to locate more of their R&D centers in China, said Wen, adding that China has enough talents and market potentials to accommodate them. Wen emphasized that China will unswervingly stick to its policy of opening-up and protect foreign investors' legal rights by improving concerned laws and regulations. China strives to create a fair and transparent environment for them, Wen said.

Yeah, well that's not going to happen. No one locates their sophisticated R & D centers in China for obvious reasons. Low tech research or a single phase of research where the Chinese could not learn the whole process, but that's about it.

The legal system here isn't going to be ready for tough IP challenges for a while. If you are lucky enough to win one, you aren't going to be able to enforce it. China still favors monetary fines which are worthless over criminal penalties which might actually have some effect.