Photo taken on April 22, 2011 shows that the pirated and illegal publications and audio-visual products are destroyed in Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province. (Photo: Xinhua/Chang Yishu)
Intellectual property (IP) protection has improved hugely in recent years in China as the country's creative industry has developed rapidly and more products have been delivered across the world, Lord Clement Jones, member of Britain's House of Lords, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.
He said progress has been made as local courts in China have begun to improve the way they deal with IP issues. Certain local courts, for example, in east China's Zhejiang Province, have launched online e-courts to handle cases related to disputes over e-shopping, copyright and online financial services.
Furthermore, China's biggest online trader Alibaba also signed a memorandum of understanding to combat online counterfeits, which shows IP protection has improved a lot, he added.
Jones said in the past years, China and Britain have established bilateral cooperation in IP protection between government departments, and also in the field of justice and private companies.
However, he thought that the challenge of China-UK IP cooperation focuses on law enforcement in the local courts. He said IP protection is a permanent battle across the world, and efforts need to be made step by step to fight with IP crimes.
"Education is something we have talked about. We need to make sure that young people both in the UK and China understand the consequences. They should not only understand that creators need to be able to make a living out of their creation whether it's music, film, book or whatever, but also if they infringe somebody's copyright, prosecution will be taken place," he said.
Jones said he expected more dialogue between China, Britain and western countries over IP issues as China registers more patents in western markets.
"As Chinese books, films and so on become more widely distributed, Chinese companies are much keener now to enforce IP rights, which I think is great," he said, adding that British firms welcome more bilateral cooperation with China on IP matters and to work together to find solutions.
