Anyone who has wandered through the night markets in Bangkok or Jakarta, or stopped in Shenzhen knows that Intellectual property rights are not enforced. Those DVDs in the little plastic sleeves with photocopied covers are were not shipped from the studio, and the swoosh is backwards on those Nike shoes.
I have heard arguments for and against better enforcement of Intellectual property rights in Asia. Indonesian essayist and diplomat Yasmi Adriansyah argues that greater use of patents and copyrights will lead to a stronger economy.
A joint research project titled Impact of the Intellectual Property System on Economic Growth, carried out by the United Nations University (UNU) and WIPO (September 2007), shows that there is a significant correlation between IP and economic growth.
The survey, conducted in six Asian countries (namely Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, Malaysia and India), shows that trends in the number of patent applications filed are very similar to trends involving economic data, such as GDP, R&D expenditure and foreign direct investment, in many of the countries studied.
On the other hand, most of the people you see hawking fake Rolex watches and bootlegged DVDs make a hell of a lot less money than the people who produce said products. Perhaps bootlegging is simply a natural way to share the wealth of a few with the mass of people struggling to make a buck.
Companies like Nike, which opened factories in Vietnam, are bringing jobs to countries where copyright infringement is worst. However, at $30-$50 per month, the salaries of workers are a bit low to seduce workers from the bootlegging industry.
I expect developing countries to make a show of support for intellectual property as a way to cozy up to The First World. However, I think that lip service is as far as most of them will go towards cracking down on one of the more lucrative industries in their countries.
