US Falsely Claiming It 'Won' IP Fight With China
from the it-lost-badly dept
You may recall a few years ago that in the (still ongoing!) fight between Antigua and the US at the World Trade Organization (WTO), that the WTO came out with a ruling where the US declared immediate victory, though the details showed that actually the WTO had sided with Antigua. The US merely declared victory, and got its (wrong) story out to the press first.It appears that's happening again.
Earlier this week, plenty of attention was paid to a WTO ruling concerning US disputes with China over a variety of intellectual property issues. The US Trade Representative quickly declared victory (pdf) and that's the story most of the folks in the press went with, claiming that this was a US victory where the WTO largely supported the US. Some even called it a major victory, while others were surprised that China seemingly was fine with the ruling.
Perhaps that's because if you actually read through the details, you realize, as Michael Geist points out, that the US actually lost very badly. There were three issues at stake -- and the only one the US "won" was the most minor of the three. On the two big issues, concerning China's border measures concerning counterfeit goods and its IP enforcement system within the country, the WTO sided strongly with China, and chastised the US for providing rather bogus "evidence" (often consisting of newspaper articles, rather than actual evidence) in support of its position. It seems like the only mainstream publication that actually bothered to read the report, rather than the USTR's "day is night" version of the events was Forbes, who notes that the USTR was being misleading in claiming victory. Of course, given how the US acted after it lost the Antigua case in the WTO, we can expect the US to appeal the ruling or... just ignore it and continue pretending the WTO actually ruled in its favor.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: china, us, us trade representative, wto
Companies: wto
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Ha
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Ha
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I can't believe you said that.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Are you sure ?
Lets see here ... fake stuff? - nope ... knock offs - nope
Well, I guess you are wrong.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Actually, you should take a look closely at what's happening in the Chinese music market -- where the same thing applies. What they've done is rather than saying "something must be done" they've changed their business model... successfully.
JY Park, a successful Korean music entrepreneur says that China is one of his most lucrative markets, but he doesn't worry about selling CDs or selling music there... he focuses on sponsorships, mobile subscriptions and live performances.
So, instead of saying "something needs to be done" how about looking for ways to take advantage of the situation yourself?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
US vs China & WTO
Also it is so funny - Uncle Sam got caught with his pants down again!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Worth Noting...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Worth Noting...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Reminds me of something...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]