The Economist's Digest 9

Mind games
(Originally from The Economist Nov.10~17)
Summary:
The fake goods seem to disappear in China’s big city. However, the view is one the surface. Actually, fake brand-name goods are hidden under the counter or in a special place of the store. Because of this, some people in the Quality Brands Protection Committee said things are better, others claimed it’s getting worse, and still others thought the situation doesn’t improve. It seems difficult to protect intellectual property in China.
The situation is in other industries as well, from fake medicine to mobile phones. Fake medicine could lead to high casualties, which scares the Chinese government. As for mobile industry, there are very alert to it now! The Chinese government has caught many people making fake Motorola, Nokia phones.
Even the government took strict measures, there’s little improvement in the piracy of goods. Why? Because there are many restrictions to catch patent criminal, especially for humanitarian concerns, needless to say, sellers started to hide their fake products.
Fake goods online are a problem, too. Although the piracy of DVDs and CDs has decrease recently, the online film problem becomes more and more serious. Sarcastically, the Chinese government is able to check online information that threats the government, but can’t do anything about it. Due to the limitation of foreign-film import, many films are released online illegally.
There’s even such a debate about patent that is going too far! However, as the development of Chinese companies, their needs of patent will increase. If the Chinese government wants to create advanced products in domestic industry, they must improve the situation, or no one will be willing to create. Furthermore, calls for stronger protection come from EU and US. On the other hand, consumers in China are more willing to buy real edition of fake products now!

What I think:
So touching it is to see such a view in Chinese shops about patent protection. The Chinese people have had little concept about intellectual-property protection since long ago, so it’s a little difficult for us (including Taiwanese people) to protect patents properly. Nevertheless, this would lead to the difficulties to improve our nation.
Why? Since there were not any protections of people’s invention, we have to cover them and then knowledge of people couldn’t spread wide. Thus, patent is important, but it should be used properly. Patents can make brand names. It can’t be used as a means of blocking the market, or fake goods will flow into the market again.