At a forum on Intellectual Property Rights in Higher Education, Professor Zheng Shengli, dean of the IPR school of Peking University, made the claim that by the year 2010 China will need between 55,000 to 60,000 IPR experts. Professor Zheng called on the universities of China to open IPR departments to try and meet the demand.

There were 3.284 million scientific personnel nationwide in 2004, and correspondingly at least 32,800 IPR professionals were needed, he said
However, only about 3,000 IPR professionals had been turned out by universities over the past 10 or more years because universities have been slow to teach the subject, Zheng said.

“The shortage of IPR professionals will hamper the development of IPR protection, which will consequently slow down the progress in scientific and other related research areas,” said Xie Xiaoyong, development director of Research and Development Center of the State Intellectual Property Office, which was the co-organizer of the forum.

Renmin University was the first to begin teaching IPR in 1986, at the Intellectual Property Teaching and Research Center. Now 18 other universities have similar programs.

If anyone knows about quality the quality of Chinese Law schools in this regard I would be interested to hear it. Am I the only one who thinks that more IPR professionals doesn’t necessarily equal better protection or enforcement?

Popularity: 41% [?]

I had written before about IPR week, but April 26th is the official worldwide day of IPR protection. As China makes a show of cracking down on piracy, World Intellectual Property day is the perfect time to hold large public events. I bet most of them even had big red inflatable arches. From one of the Nanjing daily newspapers, Public Square Publicizes “Intellectual Property”. (translated by me, so if there are any translation problems let me know)

Yesterday, 4/26, was “World Intellectual Property Day”, and the Provincial Industry and Commerce Bureau, the Copyright Bureau and other departments in Nanjing held a publicity and advisory event on Shangxi Road, with the related departments accepting 152 complaint cases. As an authority from a Beijing software company at the event told this reporter, software is the the most pirated industry, although the loses are difficult to calculate.

Is it that surprising that an authority from a software company would say that software piracy is the most widespread problem? Although he is correct that piracy loses are difficult to calculate, this is true for any industry. And I have to wonder what exactly was given to the authorities as complaints. Other then suspicions that your neighbor is running a DVD factory, what are they telling them that isn’t already apparent just by walking down the street.

Of course these kind of events were held throughout China. In Xiangfan, Hubei province, the authorities staged a standard steamroller rolling over DVDs event. I will never understand why they use a machine that is designed to make things flat to run over flat objects. I think a wood chipper makes a better point. And in one of the more bizarre piracy crack down cases, from a humorously titled China Daily article, Police pluck bird flu research base to find DVD pirates

NANCHANG - Chinese police have nabbed a pirate DVD production and sales ring that had concealed their operation in a supposed bird flu research base in east China’s Jiangxi Province.

Zheng Deming, head of the provincial anti-pornography and anti-illegal publications office, said police in Jiangxi, Hubei and Guangzhou seized at least 16 alleged members of a fake DVD ring which has produced and sold about 26.4 million DVDs in two years.

It goes on that to say that the owners scared away local residents by telling them that it was a flu research facility, and locked the factory doors and would not let the workers out during the day. Why isn’t this case getting more attention in the United States? It has two things the media loves, bird flu and Chinese factories.

I hope everyone had a good IPR week and day, and will conclude with a statistic, once again from China Daily. It is hard to say what will happen with piracy in China in the coming years, but I think it will be interesting to watch.

Statistics from China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate show that in 2006, 1,224 people were arrested on intellectual property rights infringement charges, up 44.9 percent over 2005. In the first quarter this year, 578 more offenders were arrested on intellectual property rights charges, up 19.4 percent over the figure last year.

Popularity: 73% [?]

Why can’t “National IPR Week” be every week? The answer is because then it wouldn’t be so special.

April 20 – April 26 is a time that we put our petty differences aside and think about how Paramount and Disney are losing money.

“IPR Week” held nationwide around the World Intellectual Property Day aims to enhance the public’s IPR awareness and call on the whole society to take part in IPR protection work.

Since the first IPR Week in 2004, it has been a platform for publicizing China’s IPR laws and regulations, popularizing IPR knowledge and enhancing the public’s IPR protection awareness.

This included launching this brand new website that, for some reason, at least in my browser, has text that will not stop blinking. I tried reading it but the eye strain was too much. But it is worth checking out the 2006 Top Ten IPR Protection Events in China and the inaugurated announcement

And for those who are really interested you can check out the China’s Action Plan on IPR Protection 2007.

I only wish there were guidelines for celebrating this holiday. Should we be jeering at the pirate DVD sellers? Burning my fake Crocodile wallet and Pamu jacket? Writing thank you letters to Microsoft? I just don’t know.

Thanks to Tech China Blog for posting about this and bringing it to my attention.

Related recent IPR fun:
Blame Canada!
U.S. vs China at the WTO: “We’re too old!”
Pirates of the Middle Kingdom (update)
IPR infringements: Glass Is Half Full or Half Empty?

Popularity: 70% [?]