How do patents affect innovation in mainland China and Hong Kong? How can two patent systems operate within one country and how is innovation affected by the 'one country two systems' model? For the first time, this book links these challenging issues together and provides a comprehensive overview for government officials, law-makers, academics, law practitioners and students to understand the patent systems of mainland China and Hong Kong. Themes examined include the interaction between the two distinctive patent regimes, the impact of patents on innovation in China's specific industries such as green tech, traditional Chinese medicines and telecommunications, the role of utility models in inflating low-quality patents and the application of good faith principle in enforcing FRAND in mainland China, patent system reforms in Hong Kong, and the impact of these changes on innovation in the two vastly distinctive yet closely connected jurisdictions.

The first book on how patents and innovation interact within the two co-existing patent systems in mainland China and Hong Kong.

The first book on how patents and innovation interact within the two co-existing patent systems in Mainland China and Hong Kong.

This study’s statistical analysis shows that patent quality and innovation in China deserve improvement, and an in-depth legal, management science, and economic analysis in the study shows that various patent-related policies and practices actually hamper patent quality and innovation in China. Over 50 recommendations for reform are provided. The study is divided into four chapters, summaries of which are as follows: Although China became the world leader in quantity of domestically filed patent applications in 2011, the quality of these patents needs improvement. Also, while certain innovation in China is rising, the country’s actual innovation appears over-hyped by some sources. There appears to be an overly heavy focus on government-set quantitative patent targets in China, which can hamper patent quality and innovation. This overemphasis involves over 10 national-level and over 150 municipal/provincial quantitative patent targets, mostly to be met by 2015, which are also linked to performance evaluations for SoEs, Party officials and government ministries, universities and research institutes, and other entities. China has a wide-range of other policies, many of which are at least partially meant to encourage patents, that can actually discourage quality patents, and highest-quality patents in particular, and innovation. Examples of these policies include a variety of measures with requirements for “indigenous intellectual property rights” that are linked to financial incentives (many of which are unrelated to government procurement); a range of other government-provided financial incentives for patent development (e.g. certain patent filing subsidies); inappropriate inventor remuneration rules; discriminatory standardization approaches; and a wide range of others. There are a host of concerns surrounding rules and procedures for patent application review and those for enforcement of patent disputes that can hamper building of quality patents and innovation in China. These include concerns about abuse of patent rights, difficulties invalidating utility models, and a wide range of other issues.

Beyond real GDP, innovative capacity is an important indicator of the economic strength of a nation. By studying innovative capacity and other indicators of success in innovation across the Group-of-Seven (G7) Countries, the East Asian Newly Industrialised Economies (EANIEs) and Mainland China, this book will systematically establish a positive relationship between innovation outputs and inputs of different economies. In doing so, it seeks to answer the question — are there laws of innovation? It seeks to identify the determinants of innovation at the economy-wide level, ascertain whether these determinants are similar across different economies, and find suitable metrics for comparing relative success in innovation across different economies. It concludes that innovation, rather than being a stroke of good fortune, comes from research and development activities conducted over a long period of time, and sheds light on future trends and areas for further research.

This book systematically studies the structural characteristics of IP laws and regimes of major Asian economies, including (but not always) China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. It explores and crystallizes some worthy Asian models which could further help the development of international IP laws. This book begins with an overview of Asian modern history and IP laws. It discusses the three basic IP laws in Asia which are patent law, trademark law and copyright law. It looks at the pre-established damages for copyright infringement and trademark counterfeiting. The book also deals with problems with trade secret and its over-protection. It compares IP laws and four industries in India and China, and examines what role have IP laws played in the development in those industries and how India and China can learn from each other. Finally, it examines one medium and one small-sized Asian economy on its respective struggle (Taiwan’s efforts to build a coherent IP exhaustion regime) and a success story (how Singapore has utilized IP to secure its position in global value chains). This book is a useful reference for law students, scholars, practitioners, IP professionals who are interested in knowing Asia, Asian IP laws and industries, their struggles and finding ways to better global IP laws. The case studies could provide helpful lessons for other Asian economies and beyond.