Piracy and the State: The Politics of Intellectual Property Rights in China - Hardcover

Dimitrov, Martin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521897319 ISBN 13: 9780521897310

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2009

Synopsis

China has the highest levels of copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting in the world, even though it also provides the highest per capita volume of enforcement. In this original study of intellectual property rights (IPR) in relation to state capacity, Dimitrov analyzes this puzzle by offering the first systematic analysis of all IPR enforcement avenues in China, across all IPR subtypes. He shows that the extremely high volume of enforcement provided for copyrights and trademarks is unfortunately of a low quality, and as such serves only to perpetuate IPR violations. In the area of patents, however, he finds a low volume of high-quality enforcement. In light of these findings, the book develops a theory of state capacity that conceptualizes the Chinese state as simultaneously weak and strong. It also demonstrates that fully rationalized enforcement of domestic and foreign IPR is emerging unevenly and, somewhat counter-intuitively, chiefly in those IPR subtypes that are least subject to domestic or foreign pressure. The book draws on extensive fieldwork in China and five other countries, as well as on 10 unique IPR enforcement datasets that exploit previously unexplored sources, including case files of private investigation firms.

About this title

Book Description

In this original study of intellectual property rights (IPR) in China, Dimitrov demonstrates that the Chinese state can be simultaneously weak and strong in its capacity to enforce its IPR laws. Offering the first systematic analysis of all IPR enforcement avenues in China, the book reveals significant variation in the degree of rationalized enforcement across different IPR subtypes.

About the Author

Martin Dimitrov is Assistant Professor of Government at Dartmouth College. He has also been a post-doctoral Fellow at Harvard University, in the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and in the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. He received his B.A. in government and French from Franklin and Marshall College and his Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University in 2004. His publications have appeared in the Journal of Democracy, Current History, and Twenty-First Century (Ershiyi shiji). He is currently working on a book-length study of the collapse and resilience of communist regimes.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0521897319
• ISBN 13: 9780521897310
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 326