Entrepreneurs seek stronger penalties for IP infringements

At a time when China is striving to boost innovation in every business sector, entrepreneurs are urging for a better protection of intellectual property rights.

Ma Huateng, also known as Pony Ma, chairman of Tencent Holdings, one of the country's largest Internet service providers, said although the government has taken many measures, online piracy continues to hinder the development of Internet industries in China.

"The loopholes in intellectual property rights protection mechanism have led to rampant piracy and low activity to create new things and to innovate," he said while attending the annual national legislative session in mid-March, urging the government to blacklist copyright violators and to increase the compensation and fines paid by violators.

His suggestion was echoed by Dong Mingzhu, president of the Guangdong-based appliance giant Gree Electric Appliances.

"The biggest annoyance for a company whose fate depends on innovation is that our patents are often stolen by others and that no one stands out to safeguard our rights," Dong said.

She also called on the government to severely punish copyright infringements to nurture innovation and originality.

Ge Junjie, vice-president of Bright Food, a Shanghai-based food giant, said his company is planning to develop a host of products based on a unique type of fungus, but has found that there are a lot of online food vendors profiteering from the loopholes in IPR protection.

"This kind of fungus has a huge market potential, but some small food or medicine companies steal formulas from others and use fake materials to make what they claim have high concentrations of this fungus," he said.

In addition, several foreign nations such as Japan and South Korea have realized the economic value of fungi and are importing large amounts of fungus materials from China to develop foods, he said, adding that poor awareness and lax protection of intellectual property rights will result in China's defeat in competition.

He suggested intellectual property, health and commerce authorities work together to crack down on copy infringements and to improve IPR protection for fungi product industry.

Shen Changyu, the commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office, said earlier this month that intellectual property protection is a "basic support to innovation and entrepreneurship".

He said his office would issue stricter policies and measures and help lawmakers revise the Patent Law. Moreover, a certain number of quick-response IPR centers would be set up to handle infringement claims in a timely manner, he said.

zhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 03/30/2016 page17)