双方为什么谈不拢？中美贸易摩擦中的知识产权问题

这是大岭为您分享IP英文的第107天：今天分享一篇对中美贸易摩擦中的知识产权问题较为客观公允的分析报道，并提供了Google翻译供大家参考。

在此，引用并支持国家发展改革委副主任、国家统计局局长宁吉喆近日接受记者采访时的回答：“改革开放40年来，中国经济与世界经济高度融合，受到经贸摩擦影响是难免的，一些指标波动也是正常的。但我国经济总体平稳、稳中有进、稳中向好的发展态势不会改变。”

原文如下：

Trade war: why US and China remain so far apart on intellectual property rights

The two sides are ‘speaking different languages’ about what the US government sees as inadequate laws and IP theft

Among all the thorny issues of the ongoing trade war between the world’s two largest economies, intellectual property rights (IPR) protection will be one of the most difficult areas in which to find breakthroughs because Beijing is not going to concede to US demands, sources have said.

United States President Donald Trump has repeatedly lashed out at China’s lax IPR protection laws, forced technology transfer and alleged IP theft, saying it costs the US as much as US$600 billion per year, a charge China has denied.

China will improve its IPR protection to bolster innovation and support industries, but not as a result of US pressure, government sources told the South China Morning Post.

“Beijing thinks all the accusations of forced technology transfer and IP theft are groundless,” the source said, noting that since the “discrepancy is huge and there is no common understanding on the IPR issue, China can and will do nothing to address the problems that do not exist”.

From Beijing’s perspective, China has made great progress in improving IPR protection in an economy with a reputation for piracy and counterfeits imitating a long list of brands ranging from shoemaker New Balance to smart gadget designer Apple.

Trading market access for technology dates back to Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s efforts to launch reform and opening-up policies. It was not until the 1980s, after China became a member of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), that it began to strengthen its intellectual property framework and enact related laws.

China cited its progress in IPR protection in a State Council white paper issued on Monday, saying that China’s IP royalties paid to the US surged from US$3.46 billion in 2011 to US$7.2 billion last year.

This year, China was ranked among the world’s top 20 most innovative economies as it moved from 22nd position to number 17 on the 2018 Global Innovation Index.

US and China clash over Donald Trump’s intellectual property claims at WTO meeting

Compiled by Cornell University, INSEAD (European Institute of Business Administration) and the WIPO, the index ranks 126 economies based on 80 indicators from IP filing rates to creation of mobile applications, as well as education spending and scientific and technical publications.

“As the US ignores all the progress China has made and the huge profits American companies have earned in China market, consensus is building among Beijing officials that the US is just using IPR as an excuse to contain China,” another source said. “We can still talk and negotiate, but we can achieve nothing if the US has no goodwill.”

China will continue to improve IPR protection, the source said, to serve its own interests rather than bowing to US pressure.

Beijing has introduced 16 specialist IP courts across the nation, increased penalties for trademark infringement from 500,000 yuan to three million yuan (US$73,000 to US$436,000), and will continue to increase staff to handle IP applications and shorten approval periods.

Mark Cohen, a senior fellow and director of the China Initiative at the Berkeley Centre for Law and Technology, said: “No doubt China has made good steps in improving IP protection, but China is not addressing US concerns.

“The US does not trust the system: the Chinese government-dominated system, the socialist approach and Made in China 2025. They are speaking different languages.”

Foreign firms have long complained that enforcing their intellectual property rights in China is difficult due to judicial protectionism, challenges in obtaining evidence, small damage awards and a perceived bias against foreign firms.

China puts IP rights in sight as world’s factory evolves from bootleg hub to top patent owner

Cohen, who was also a senior counsel of the US Patent and Trademark Office and has wide experience regarding China’s IPR issues, cited the example of a dispute between two semiconductor manufacturing companies, the Shanghai-based Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment (Amec) and New York-based Veeco Instruments.

In July 2017, Amec filed a patent infringement complaint against Veeco Instruments Shanghai with the Fujian High Court in China, alleging that Veeco’s metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) systems – for creating high-purity crystalline compound semiconducting thin films and micro or nano structures – infringed a Chinese utility model patent and seeking relief and damages.

US ‘lacks evidence’ for forced tech transfers claim against China at WTO

Last December, without providing notice to Veeco and without hearing Veeco’s position on the alleged infringement, the Fujian High Court issued a ruling, applicable in China, that requires Veeco Shanghai to stop importing, making, selling and offering to sell Veeco EPIK 700 model MOCVD systems which contain the accused infringing mechanism covered by Amec’s patent, according to Veeco.

There are more cases which are not published by mainland courts, and the lack of court transparency has undermined foreign companies’ confidence in the Chinese system, according to Cohen, especially when China underscores its ambitions with the Made in China 2025 strategic plan, a state-led industrial policy that seeks dominance in global hi-tech manufacturing.

Sourabh Gupta, a senior Asia-Pacific international relations policy specialist with the China-American Studies in Washington, said the main reason for the stand-off between China and the US over IP rights is that they have different understandings of the issue.

From China’s perspective, said Gupta, it does not violate World Trade Organisation rules on IPR and it has updated its policies to be in line with WTO rules.

For the US, it is also about issues related to commercial espionage and theft of private trade secrets, as well as coerced technology transfer issues, he said.

China steps up scrutiny of IP transfers to foreign firms on national security grounds

During August trade talks, US negotiators pressed Beijing about coerced technology transfer. They cited memory-chip maker Micron Technology, which filed a lawsuit in the US District Court in California in December alleging technology theft by Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co. Jinhua sued Micron in January in a court in Fujian province – whose government partly controls Jinhua – and won a temporary order blocking some Micron subsidiaries from selling products in China that each company claims patents to.

Coerced technology transfer is barred by China’s WTO accession and even the United States Trade Representative, in its investigation report in April, said China has no laws on its books that forcibly require technology transfer. But the US believes there are de facto practices that damage the commercial rights of its private companies operating in China, Gupta said.

“The privileging of the Chinese joint venture partner as the nodal point of contact with regulators during the investment approval process does lead at times to opaque deal-specific requirements that end up resulting in the leakage of the US investors’ IP,” he said.

China looks to Europe on WTO reform as pressure builds from ‘united front’

China requires that foreign companies wanting to open or expand in 35 sectors do it through joint ventures. Its government procurement law also favours goods and services from domestic companies.

“By design or accident, this risk of loss of technology and know-how is exacerbated when the Chinese joint venture partner maintains parallel operations within the same business line that compete with the joint venture operation,” Gupta said.

Henry Chan Hing Lee, an adjunct research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s East Asia Institute, said China is more than willing to protect IPR, because China now has the highest number of patents and it makes sense for it to protect them.

Patrick Mendis, an associate-in-research at the Fairbank Centre for Chinese Studies at Harvard University, said: “China has institutionalised a number of IPR protection mechanisms, but the question is how effective it is in applying them. To achieve its own policy goals for the Made in China 2025 initiative, Beijing must demonstrate that it can walk the walk.”

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Google翻译：

贸易摩擦：为什么美国和中国在知识产权方面仍然相距甚远

关于美国政府认为法律不足和知识产权被盗的问题，双方正在“说不同的语言”

在世界两大经济体之间正在进行的贸易战的所有棘手问题中，知识产权保护将成为寻找突破的最困难的领域之一，因为北京不会承认美国的要求，消息来源说过。

美国总统唐纳德特朗普一再猛烈抨击中国宽松的知识产权保护法，强制技术转让和涉嫌知识产权盗窃，称美国每年花费6000亿美元，这是中国否认的指控。

政府消息人士告诉南华早报，中国将改善其知识产权保护，以加强创新和支持产业，但不是由于美国的压力。

“北京认为，强制技术转让和知识产权盗窃的所有的指责是毫无根据的，”该人士表示，并指出，由于“差异是巨大的，有在知识产权问题上没有达成共识，中国能够而且将无助于解决问题那不存在“。

从北京的角度来看，中国在改善知识产权保护方面取得了很大进展，这个经济体以盗版和假冒品牌而闻名，模仿从鞋匠New Balance到智能小工具设计师Apple的众多品牌。

技术交易市场准入可以追溯到中国领导人邓小平推行改革开放政策的努力。直到20世纪80年代，在中国成为世界知识产权组织（WIPO）成员之后，才开始加强其知识产权框架并制定相关法律。

中国在周一发表的国务院白皮书中列举了其在知识产权保护方面取得的进展，称中国向美国支付的知识产权使用费从2011年的34.6亿美元飙升至去年的72亿美元。

今年，中国在2018年全球创新指数中从第22位上升到第17位，跻身世界前20大创新经济体之列。

美国和中国在唐纳德特朗普在WTO会议上的知识产权主张发生冲突

该指数由康奈尔大学，欧洲工商管理学院（欧洲工商管理学院）和WIPO编制，根据知识产权申请率，创建移动应用以及教育支出和科技出版物等80个指标对126个经济体进行排名。

“由于美国无视中国取得的所有进展以及美国公司在中国市场获得的巨额利润，北京官员正在建立共识，即美国只是以知识产权为借口遏制中国，”另一位消息人士称。 “我们仍然可以谈判和谈判，但如果美国没有善意，我们就无法取得任何成就。”

消息人士称，中国将继续改善知识产权保护，以服务于自己的利益，而不是屈服于美国的压力。

北京在全国引入了16个专业知识产权法院，将商标侵权的处罚从50万元增加到300万元（73,000美元到436,000美元），并将继续增加员工处理知识产权申请并缩短审批时间。

伯克利法律和技术中心的高级研究员兼中国倡议主任马克·科恩说：“毫无疑问，中国在改善知识产权保护方面已采取了很好的措施，但中国并没有解决美国的担忧。

“美国不信任这个制度：中国政府主导的制度，社会主义制度和中国制造2025年。他们说不同的语言。”

外国公司长期以来一直抱怨说，由于司法保护主义，获取证据的挑战，小额损害赔偿以及对外国公司的偏见，在中国强制执行其知识产权很困难。

随着世界工厂从盗版中心发展成为顶级专利所有者，中国将知识产权放在眼前

科恩同时也是美国专利商标局的高级顾问，在中国的知识产权问题上拥有丰富的经验，他引用了两家半导体制造公司，上海的先进微加工设备（Amec）和新产品之间的争议。总部位于约克的Veeco Instruments。

在2017年7月，Amec的提出了专利侵权控告威科仪器上海与福建高等法院在中国，指称Veeco的金属有机化学气相沉积（MOCVD）系统 - 用于创建高纯度结晶化合物半导体薄膜和微或纳米结构 - 侵犯中国实用新型专利并寻求救济和损害赔偿。

美国“缺乏证据”证明世贸组织对中国的强制技术转让索赔

去年12月，在未向Veeco发出通知且未听取Veeco对涉嫌侵权的立场的情况下，福建高等法院在中国发布了一项裁决，要求Veeco上海停止进口，制造，销售和出售Veeco EPIK 700型MOCVD根据Veeco的说法，这些系统包含被Amec专利所涵盖的被控侵权机制。

Cohen表示，还有更多的案件没有被大陆法院公布，缺乏法院透明度已经破坏了外国公司对中国体制的信心，特别是当中国强调其对中国制造2025战略计划的野心时，一个国家寻求全球高科技制造业主导地位的产业政策。

华盛顿中美研究亚太区国际关系政策专家Sourabh Gupta表示，中美之间在知识产权问题上脱颖而出的主要原因是他们对这个问题有不同的理解。

古普塔表示，从中国的角度来看，它并没有违反世界贸易组织的知识产权规则，并且已经更新了其政策，符合WTO规则。

他说，对于美国而言，它还涉及商业间谍活动和盗窃私人商业秘密以及强制技术转让问题。

中国以国家安全为由，加强对外国公司知识产权转让的审查

在8月的贸易谈判中，美国谈判代表向北京强调了强制技术转让。他们引用记忆芯片制造商美光科技公司于去年12月在加利福尼亚州美国地方法院提起诉讼，指控福建金华集成电路有限公司技术被盗。金华1月份在福建省一家法院起诉美光 - 其政府部分控制金华 - 并且赢得了一项临时命令，阻止一些美光子公司在中国销售产品，每家公司都要求获得专利。

中国入世加入了强制技术转让，甚至美国贸易代表在4月份的调查报告中表示，中国没有强制要求技术转让的法律。但古普认为，美国认为存在损害其在中国经营的私营公司商业权利的事实上的做法。

“在投资审批过程中，中国合资伙伴作为与监管机构联系点的特权确实有时导致特定交易的不透明要求最终导致美国投资者的知识产权泄露，”他说。

由于“统一战线”的压力，中国向世界展望WTO改革

中国要求希望在35个行业开放或扩张的外国公司通过合资企业来做。其政府采购法也有利于国内公司的商品和服务。

“在设计或事故中，当中国合资伙伴在与合资企业竞争的同一业务线内维持平行业务时，这种技术和专有技术损失的风险就会加剧，”古普塔说。

新加坡国立大学东亚研究所的兼职研究员Henry Chan Hing Lee表示，中国非常愿意保护知识产权，因为中国拥有最多的专利，因此保护它们是有道理的。

哈佛大学费尔班克中国研究中心的研究员帕特里克·门迪斯说：“中国已将一系列知识产权保护机制制度化，但问题在于应用它们的效果如何。为实现“中国制造2025”倡议的自身政策目标，北京必须证明它可以走它的路。”

Source:https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2166315/trade-war-why-us-and-china-remain-so-far-apart-intellectual

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