It is uncontroversial to say that, in years gone by, the reputation of China in the realm of IP protection and enforcement was far from good. Rightly or wrongly, the themes that were commonly associated with China included trademark squatting and counterfeiting. Concerns about IP practices even sparked the recent trade dispute between the US and China, and US authorities have been clamping down on alleged trade secrets theft by Chinese nationals.

Victor Guo of Panawell evaluates the best way in which foreign companies can protect their IP against Chinese plaintiffs, looking at protection before launch of a product, procedural options and defences

Lina Li and Yunze Lian of Jadong emphasise the importance of protecting Latin alphabet trade marks in Chinese, looking at both translation and transliteration of marks

Shirley Fu and Yakai Shi of Sanyou analyse the different types of IP protection afforded by customs authorities in China, evaluating the advantages of seeking active protection from customs

Nell Greenhouse of Kangxin evaluates different ways to enforce IP rights in China, including administrative actions, mediation, cease and desist letters and customs recordal

Guanbin Xie and Bin Zhang of Lifang assess the effectiveness of copyright law in the protection of big data before moving on to detail the advantages of using competition law to protect this data