Groups: Chinese Product Piracy Rising

By The Associated Press | The New York Times
April 26, 2007

The flood of pirated movies and other goods from China is growing despite increased enforcement, two U.S. business groups said Thursday, appealing to Beijing for tougher action.

Beijing's anti-piracy activity ''is either not enough or not of the right kind,'' the American Chamber of Commerce in China and the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai said in a report released on International Intellectual Property Day.

Forty percent of companies surveyed said the volume of counterfeiting of their products in China increased, while only 4 percent saw a decline, said the report, an annual review of Chinese business conditions.

Chinese product piracy has worsened tensions with Washington, which filed a World Trade Organization complaint this month accusing Beijing of violating trade commitments by failing to protect copyrights, patents and other intellectual property rights.

Beijing should ''continue raising deterrents to IPR infringement,'' the report said. It said the risk of fines and seizures now is so small that Chinese pirates can treat it as a cost of doing business.

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