Intellectual Property Abuses: How Should Multinationals Respond?

Abstract

Bradford Scholars -how to deposit your paper Overview Copyright check• Check if your publisher allows submission to a repository.• Use the Sherpa RoMEO database if you are not sure about your publisher's position or email openaccess@bradford.ac.uk.

Factors contributing to the strength of national patent protection and enforcement after TRIPS

“…Indeed, increasing the number of firms who actively engage with the patent and IP systems of the country will increase the number of firms who seek to commercialize their newly granted IP rights and who will monitor the market to identify when their rights are infringed by competitors. After identifying the infringement of their rights, the new IP owners as well as their collective industry associations will in turn apply pressure on the public patent enforcement agents who are responsible for enforcing patent law in practice (Yang et al, 2004). The overall registration and maintenance cost of a unitary patent for 20 years is expected to be €35,555, whereas the equivalent cost of patent registration and maintenance in each of the 26 countries would be €169,667, a projected saving of €134,112 per patent (EPO, 2018b).…”

“…Similarly, China's 12 th five-year plan (2011-2015) incentivized Chinese firms to make use of the patent system by subsidizing the cost of patent applications (U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, 2011). The main expectation for such subsidies is that as the number of patent owners in a country rises, this will increase the pressure on public patent enforcement agents to enforce patent law more effectively in practice (Yang et al, 2004). The outcome of such initiatives takes time to materialize, and therefore the transition of a country's patent system from weak to strong is expected to take years or even decades (Peng et al, 2017).…”

Anticounterfeiting Strategies and Their Influence on Attitudes of Different Counterfeit Consumer Types

“…Firms can also develop appropriate marketing strategies to communicate different messages that specifically emphasize the superiority associated with a genuine product and to warn consumers of the risks associated with counterfeits (Delener, ; Shultz & Saporito, ; Yang, Sonmez, & Bosworth, ). Warnings to the public not only of the health or security risks attached with using imitations, but also stressing moral dissonance surrounding consumers’ indirect contribution to organized crime may also help.…”

Global Software Piracy: Searching for Further Explanations

“…First, piracy in the software industry has been most prevalent and widespread with consumer piracy and counterfeiting co-existing, as in the movie and music industries (Yang et al, 2004). Second the data on software piracy are relatively systematic and complete (Husted, 2000;Traphagan and Griffith, 1998).…”

“…Furthermore, introducing new versions would force pirates to upgrade the old versions to attract buyers of fake software. As a result, this act increases the costs to the pirates -organisations, individuals and counterfeiters - (Yang et al, 2004). This is based on the fact that product innovations are time-consuming, and costly, and pirates tend to be less advanced in technology and less financially well off, and if production is involved, they tend to have less manpower (Yang and Fryxell, 2007).…”