The Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights: Comparative Perspectives from the Asia-Pacific Region

Concerted efforts to enforce global intellectual property rights (IPR) continue to focus intensely on the developing countries of East Asia, and China in particular. These efforts have spawned a complex system of legal mechanisms that is still very much in process of evolution, encompassing international and regional conventions, WTO dispute settlements, bilateral and plurilateral treaties, decisions of national courts and regulatory bodies, and a welter of local laws and border controls. This hugely useful book provides more detail than will be found in any other source on the current state of all these measures and their interactions and trends, especially as they affect East Asian markets for IPR-protected products.

It gathers together fourteen thoroughly researched essays by internationally-known practitioners and academics with specialties in Asian intellectual property law. In the course of their interlinked analyses they discuss such aspects as the following:

• estimates of the negative impact of counterfeiting and piracy on businesses, competition, employment, consumer protection, state revenue, and foreign investment;

• transnational effects of IP enforcement laws of the EU, Japan, the UK, and other developed countries;

• enforcement provisions in Free Trade Agreements negotiated between Asian developing countries and the United States, the EU, and Japan;

• potential impact of the newly-released Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA);

• civil forfeiture vs. criminal proceedings;

• copyright enforcement provisions in the digital environment;

• counterfeit medicines and the involvement of organized crime;;

• interests of developing countries (for example in traditional knowledge);

• receiving and recovery orders;

• Internet service provider (ISP) liability; and

• impact of broad enforcement provisions on innovation and emerging creative industries.

Although wide-reaching in its overall presentation, the book also deals with numerous particular applications in Cambodia, Indonesia, Brunei, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, China, and Japan. Lawyers seeking a secure foothold from which to proceed in cases of piracy, infringement, or counterfeiting will welcome this informative and up-to-date analysis and commentary. It will prove especially valuable as an early indicator of changes likely to come about as ACTA takes effect.