With the development of the world economy, exchanges between countries are becoming more and more frequent, and in the more frequent economic exchanges, people begin to notice the role of intellectual property rights and pay attention to it. With the continuous development of foreign economy in China, multinational companies and many foreign trade companies have experienced a lot of intellectual property disputes.
Therefore, it is necessary to promote the improvement of intellectual property rights related system for the stable development of China’s economy and better development of foreign economy.
Intellectual Property Rights
Intellectual property is intangible and does not exist as an entity. It is a kind of ownership and dominion over the right object formed after the economic development to a certain extent, and is a legally prescribed moot.
The concept of patent first emerged from the “Great Britain Bowker’s Complete Works”, when the right to use and dominate inventions was granted to several Italian countries where patents first originated, and only later in the 18th century did real patent regulations appear. Intellectual property rights include works, inventions, patents, goodwill, etc. They all belong to intangible assets, which do not have a specific form, but have a high value in themselves because they are the result of people’s labor, and can be dominated and used.
Intellectual property is also one of the intangible assets, and is a kind of industrial property, so it can also be dominated and used by people, and can bring certain benefits. Many intellectual property rights are related to literary works, inventions and scientific and technological innovations, which have a high value, so there are special laws and regulations for their protection, and the relevant laws must be followed when they are used.
Intellectual Property Rights in International Trade
International trade refers to transnational economic trade, mainly refers to import and export, with the further deepening of the globalization of the world economy, the scope of world trade is constantly expanding, and the depth and breadth are also gradually increasing.
In this deeper international trade relationship, the connection between countries is extremely close, but there are also trade differences between countries, so in order to occupy a favorable position in international trade we need to understand the relevant aspects of international trade and protect the interests of our country.
The main protection of intellectual property rights in international trade is to prevent infringement and claims. In world trade, the flow of intellectual property rights is generally from developing countries to developed countries, the reason is that the level of technology in developed countries is higher, and the sales of technological products are obviously better than the low-tech products in developing countries.
Moreover, developed countries are obviously more aware of the white tiger of intellectual property rights than developing countries, so they attach great importance to patent application and trademark registration, and the punishment for infringement is also very heavy to combat the infringement.
Since China joined the World Trade Organization, the economic exchanges with other countries in the world have become closer and closer, and as we enter the 21st century, the number of intellectual property disputes in foreign trade has increased, people have begun to notice the importance of intellectual property rights, and intellectual property rights have gradually become an important factor in international trade competition, especially the trade barriers between developed and developing countries are also more obvious.
And with the development of economy and the improvement of science and technology, the focus of international trade has gradually shifted to knowledge-intensive industries, in which case, the importance of intellectual property rights becomes more and more obvious.
In recent years, there have been cases where trademarks of well-known enterprises in China have been pre-empted by foreign companies, for example, the familiar “Lao Gan Ma” has been pre-registered in Europe. But this problem is only the tip of the iceberg in China’s intellectual property rights, many of China’s technological inventions in the early years did not have the relevant awareness of property rights, many are used by foreign companies for free, China’s intellectual property protection is not perfect.
Measures to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in international trade
(1) Strengthen the ability of independent innovation
The 18th Party Congress has clearly proposed to strengthen scientific and technological innovation and implement the strategy of innovation-driven development, so the development of science and technology is the current important development direction, which is an important way to improve scientific and technological strength and comprehensive national power.
Most of the enterprises in China are not high in science and technology, the lack of independent innovation awareness, products are mostly imitation of foreign products, processing, always at the low end of the production chain, low technology content. Therefore, in order to achieve economic development and technological innovation, we must strengthen the independent innovation ability of enterprises, so that our products can occupy a place in the world.
(2) Improve the relevant laws and regulations
After China’s accession to the World Trade Organization, a considerable number of laws have been enacted to protect intellectual property rights, including books, patents, trademarks, software, etc., which have improved the state of legal vacancies before accession to the WTO, but with the development of the economy and the strengthening of ties between countries, the introduction of these laws is not enough to protect China’s intellectual property rights and to pursue the treatment of infringement.
Therefore, if we want to truly protect intellectual property rights in the world trade, we should improve the relevant laws and regulations according to our country’s economic development, which should conform to the world’s relevant standards and be applicable to our country’s development reality, and establish our country’s applicable intellectual property protection system.
(3) Actively respond to the intellectual property barriers in trade
Just security barriers refers to the legislative, administrative and judicial measures adopted by a country for the protection of trade-related intellectual property rights, which violate the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, that is, the monopoly of intellectual property rights exceeds the reasonable scope, so that the normal international trade is affected, it becomes an intellectual property trade barrier.
This mainly refers to import and export restrictions on patents, trademarks, science and technology and other products in the name of intellectual property protection, or unreasonable use of intellectual property rights, which is mainly manifested in developed countries to developing countries. Intellectual property barriers are one of the main means for developed countries to protect their markets and gain wealth.
Conclusion
Since entering the 21st century, the world’s economic development from the original industrial production-centered to technology industry production-centered, the advantages of science and technology as a productive force is extremely obvious.
In the world trade, the gap between developed and developing countries has become more and more obvious, and disputes over intellectual property rights have occurred repeatedly. In order to occupy a favorable position in the world trade, it is urgent to protect China’s intellectual property rights and establish a perfect intellectual property protection system.
