Intellectual property must be better protected

DURING THE FIFTH PLENARY SESSION of the 12th National People's Congress, China's top legislature, Huang Jianping, a deputy from South China's Guangdong province, said the robust growth of virtual economy has taken a toll on bricks-and-mortar enterprises. Beijing News commented on Monday:

Huang, who is also the chairman of Guangdong Wonderful Ceramics Co Ltd, has good reason to fire away at the dark side of the internet-driven economy. Like many manufacturing veterans, he is infuriated by the fact that many online retailers, despite their blatant infringements of the intellectual property rights of other manufacturers, are not held accountable due to the difficulty in holding them to account.

In fact, Jack Ma, founder of the e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, recently commented on the intellectual property rights issue, saying counterfeiting should be dealt with in the way drunken driving has been handled. In other words, the root cause of the unruly counterfeiting is that intellectual property is not under proper protection.