We all know the Far East is THE place in the world to buy fake Rolex watches, fake designer clothes and FAKE anything – but why is that so? Is it because of their cheaper manufacturing arm or could there be another, deep-seated reason?

Unfortunately, many western companies dealing with the Far East have learned to their cost that the region has a very different take on Intellectual Property  from people in the West. Confucius, the world-renowned great thinker in Chinese intellectual history, passed on a moral and ethical code that has long influenced the ways of that part of the world. He believed that ideas once in the public domain and belonged to everyone – so ideas written down belonged to humanity. So the Chinese have never grown up with the concept of copyright. In reality, IP wars can be argued to be the tussle between the intercultural dimension of Individualism and Communitarianism. Knowledge and ideas are seen as one’s own indivuidual property in the west. Not so in the East. So, cross-cultural differences exist.

Having had a client whose blueprint for a very hush-hush new radar system was copied and manufactured by the potential customer they were in discussions with in the Far East , I’ve witnessed the problems connected with holding on to intellectual property rights. (See below two new books on the subject). That incident happened over ten years ago and still other similar battles are erupting all over the globe.

The scope of the problems surrounding intellectual property rights in our globalised world is vast – how far can copyright and patent-holders go in preventing others from taking their property? Intellectual property protection is not a field of bright lines and clear rules. And, the economic consequences of the dispute are also immense.

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