Short March: Shantou -- Still in the Dark On IPR,

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 011043 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR EB, R, EAP/CM, EAP/PD, DRL STATE PASS USTR USDOC FOR 4420/ITA/MAC/MCQUEEN, CELICO, DAS LEVINE USPACOM FOR FPA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KIPR ECON SCUL EINV PHUM KPAO PINR CH SUBJECT: Short March: Shantou -- Still in the Dark On IPR, But Students OK on Innovation REF: Guangzhou 10542 and previous (U) This document is sensitive but unclassified. Please protect accordingly. Not for release outside U.S. Government Channels. Not for internet publication. ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Shantou officials state that despite its notoriety in the past as a haven for the production of counterfeit goods, the city has reformed dramatically in intellectual property rights (IPR). Through education, new laws, and law enforcement, Shantou is cracking down on producers, sellers, and purchasers of counterfeit goods in the city and changing their views to more forthrightly support IPR protection. Despite grand sounding plans, Shantou officials did not provide many details of their plans or of their implementation and blamed most IPR infringements on "uneducated peasants" rather than on sophisticated manufacturers. Congenoffs also had a lively discussion on innovation and IPR with students at Shantou University. End Summary. "Shantou Back on the IPR Wagon" -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Shantou is a regional level city in Eastern Guangdong. In addition to being an important historic and regional port, it has a nefarious reputation for IPR violations. Many counterfeit goods are produced and sold in the city. The director of the Shantou Intellectual Property Rights Bureau (IPB),Zheng Xingguo, and the director of the Market Order Rectification and Standardization Office (MORO),Zheng Guimu, stated that protecting IPR is a top priority of City officials. The IPB has focused on educating locals about IPR issues in an attempt to curb IPR violations. The IPB promotes IPR awareness by visiting schools, running TV and radio ads, and requiring public servants to take tests on IPR issues. The IPB has established an IPR foundation for teenagers in the city and strongly promotes World IPR Day. The city government has also encouraged various business groups to establish their own IPR associations. Shantou is one of the few cities in China, which has its own IPR court capable of trying cases locally. The IPB says that despite a modest budget, the bureau has made great strides in combating IPR infringement in the municipality. ¶3. (SBU) The IPB also claims to offer mediation between companies with disputes over IPR issues. The IPB representative told a story of how an U.S. company was upset when it discovered that a local company was counterfeiting its product. The IPB then intervened and convinced the local counterfeiter to break the mold used for production and everyone was then happy. However, when Congenoffs requested more details, specifically the name of the U.S. company involved, the IPB representative said he would have to provide these details at a later date. City officials mostly blamed IPR infringements on "uneducated peasants" rather than on sophisticated manufacturers. Officials say that its urban dwellers are much too sophisticated to violate IPR laws. ¶4. (SBU) The IPB is also encouraging Shantou companies to file for patents as a way to encourage innovation among local firms. The bureau has set up a website, which contains patent information from the U.S., the E.U., and Japan. Local companies can search this website in order to see if an idea has already been patented. Shantou won the designation of "China's City of Brands" in 2005 from the central government. Shantou has four "famous" brand names and the local government is working hard to develop more. More -- Or Less -- On MORO -------------- ¶5. (SBU) MORO Director Zheng said that his office in reforming the market, and "supervising" IPR enforcement. In Beijing, MORO falls under the authority of the Ministry of Commerce, but in Shantou it is under the authority of the local executive office. The MORO representative says this gives them more authority and flexibility when dealing with IPR issues. The Shantou Executive Vice-Mayor heads GUANGZHOU 00011043 002 OF 002 MORO locally and another Vice Mayor and the Secretary General are both deputy directors of the organization. MORO also coordinates efforts between other agencies and the IPB. The goal of MORO is to ensure the implementation of IPR tasks set forth by the central government. ¶6. (SBU) MORO has four main duties in Shantou: researching and drafting IPR action plans; organizing enforcement activities at the local level; monitoring complaints from companies; and conducting temporary IPR enforcement campaigns. Zheng could not give any examples, however, of any intervention by MORO in specific cases that had any impact on their resolution. Shantou U. Students Get It and Don't Get It -------------- ¶7. (SBU) Moving to Shantou University, Congenoffs addressed approximately 125 university mostly law students on the importance of protecting IPR and the U.S. experience in developing an innovation culture. In the good-humored question and answer session, the students clearly demonstrated their confidence that China would become a highly innovative society through taking risks and developing IPR themselves. Nevertheless, not a few students argued, for example, that China should be given a grace period so that it can develop its version of Windows and Oracle (we responded that the world will not stand still and that China would fall behind if it wanted to reinvent some software) or that pharmaceuticals should not be as expensive as they are (we noted the high research costs in developing drugs and the high failure rate). At the end of the event, many students expressed their keen interest in the American IPR development and protection system that buttresses perhaps the most innovative society in the world, with indications of their interest in studying these and other topics in the U.S. Comment: "Those Pesky Peasants Again" -------------- ¶8. (SBU) On the surface, government officials in the Shantou area appear to be making progress in the area of protecting IPR. It was not clear, however, how well the government is implementing these plans, and officials seem to be short on details. Shantou officials did say that they arrested two IPR violators in 2005 in addition to their aforementioned example of helping a U.S. company work out their IPR problems, but the Shantou officials were not forthcoming with any details about these events or the parties involved. The officials also kept stressing that urban inhabitants of Shantou are very respectful of IPR and that all IPR infringers are peasants from the countryside who are not educated well enough to know better. They repeated this point again and again, and used it as an excuse for any shortcomings. ¶9. (SBU) The next leg of the "short march" took the Consular party to Jieyang, one of the most densely populated prefectural cities in Guangdong and seemingly devoid of the erratic swagger to be found in Shantou. Dong