Designed in China: A Legal Frontier

Abstract

China’s “Five-Year Plan” is a national strategy document developed by the country’s top leaders. Manifest in its guidelines was a concept that the developed world has traditionally and freely acknowledged, but that China has only recently become an acquaintance with. Specifically, the plan labels innovation as one of its focus areas, with a goal to move up in the value chain of global economic powers by abandoning old heavy industry and building up bases of modern information-intensive infrastructure. These objectives are to be facilitated by actions which include the strengthening of intellectual property rights protection and enforcement and represents another notch on China’s growing shelf of advancements in the area. This paper will discuss the current state of China’s intellectual property legal framework, the increasing awareness amongst Chinese leadership to bolster the framework and the barriers which will inevitably form in the eye of progress. The analysis will delve into the history of intellectual property in China and culminate with a glance into today’s political and cultural landscape. The goal of this paper is to examine the importance of devising a stable legal framework in order for China to successfully adhere with the innovation aspect of its current Five-Year Plan.