The EU’s IP Challenge

Intellectual property rights (IPR) issues must be the thing I am asked about most often in relation to China (and I have recently covered it here, here, and here). So it is no surprise when (as Financial Express reports):

“Only 9% of 1,000 companies represented by the European Chamber of Commerce in China haven’t been affected by trademark or copyright theft…Violations of copyright and other rules designed to protect inventions and brands from illegal imitation account for as much as 360 billion euros in unlawful trade each year, depriving legitimate business of income, according to the EU. About 70% of counterfeited goods imported into the bloc originate in China, the EU has said.”