FEATURESTORY
Viewpoint
Willi Vett, Lawyer, BEITEN BUR-
KHARDT International Law Firm
: What is your and Beiten
Burkhardt’s expertise in the areas of
counterfeiting, product piracy and il-
legal supply chains?
Willi Vett (WV): Our BEITEN BURKHARDT
China Practice is active in China since
more than 15 years. We have a desig-
nated IP team within our China Practice
which is focusing on various areas of IP
rights, including enforcement.
There is much criticism over Chinese government policy towards IP pro-
tection and enforcement. Is the government not proactive enough? Are
things going to change?
WV: When criticizing the Chinese government on IP protection, I believe that one
has to keep two matters in mind. On the one hand China has generally made tre-
mendous efforts over the past 20 years to introduce a legal system for IP rights
which is now for the most part in conformity with the WTO rules. On the other
hand, the enforcement of the IP legal system on the local government level is
still lacking Local governments are often less active than IP rights holders could
sources,” Lhopiteau says.” wish for, while the central government is proactive in providing a better environ-
He cites the example of a pharmaceu- ment for IP rights holders. However, there are critical voices accusing the central
tical plant in China, which was legally government of merely paying lip service.
required to maintain purified air at its
production areas. The air filters were Where do you see the biggest problem areas in terms of IP infringe-
changed regularly to meet strict prod- ment?
uct certification standards, but closer in- WV: Probably every single industry faces problems with IP rights infringement.
spection of the replacement procedures Any fake products affecting consumer safety are an obvious problem. This ap-
revealed an anomaly. Instead of buying plies for example to the automotive and pharmaceutical industry but also toys,
brand new replacement filters, a compa- as the recent Barbie scandal has shown. Where fake goods enter the supply
ny technical supervisor, security guard chain the end-producer might face severe liabilities from end-customers on the
and purchasing manager had teamed up basis of the Chinese Product Liability law.
to clean the old filters themselves with
hot water. What steps can companies take to protect their IP, especially if they are
The company insiders then made a looking at domestic sale and distribution in China?
deal with the original supplier to repack- WV: The first important step for a company is to register their basic intellectual
age the old filters in new boxes and sell property rights, in particular trademarks and domain names. Even if a company
them back to the pharmaceutical com- does not intend to spend resources on enforcing them, at least no other party
pany – with generous kickbacks enjoyed can register the their IP. We see a lot of cases where companies are forced to
by all involved. “The situation had gone go through extensive procedures to revoke registrations of intellectual property
unnoticed for some time, because it rights that should belong to such company, but were registered by a third party in
was very well organized,” says Lhopi- order to “legalise” its counterfeiting activities or to blackmail the foreign owner.
teau. “No one got hurt and, actually, the Equally important Fanny Xufor manufacturers and companies sourcing spare parts in
replacement filters worked well once China is to have a good supply chain management in place that minimises the
they had been cleaned and resupplied. It risk of fakes entering the supply chain from the first item to the customer. We
was only when we looked carefully at all have seen cases where customers bought originals and then complained of qual-
the maintenance purchasing procedures ity issues by returning fakes to the vendor. A number of organisational and techni-
that this fraud was exposed.” cal tools are available to assist in supply chain management.
www.chainaonline.com MAY/JUNE 2009 37
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64