IP Outreach Research > IP Crime
Reference
| Title: | Anti-piracy effectiveness and managerial confidence: Insights from multinationals in China |
| Author: | Deli Yang [University of Bradford], Gerald E Fryxell [China Europe International Business School], Agnes K Y Sie [Valspar Inc] |
| Source: | Journal of World Business 43, no. 3: 321-339 |
| Year: | 2008 |
Details
| Subject/Type: | Counterfeiting |
| Focus: | Brands (deceptive counterfeits), Brands (non-deceptive counterfeits) |
| Country/Territory: | China |
| Objective: | To examine the effectiveness of anti-piracy strategies employed by multinationals and the effects of managerial confidence in the IP system on such effectiveness. |
| Sample: | 128 multinational executives working in mainland China |
| Methodology: | Postal bi-lingual structured questionnaire |
Main Findings
46% of China-based multinational executives confirmed that their firm had at least captured 10 counterfeiters. 89% of these estimated incurring a loss of less than 40% of sales due to counterfeiting.
According to the respondents, administrative supports (corporate actions to seek support from government organisations to curb piracy: intellectual property (IP) registration, IP training for officials, IP collaboration to provide evidence for administrative actions against piracy) and judicial actions (civil/criminal procedures) are effective anti-piracy strategies. The effectivity of the administrative supports is highest when confidence in the country’s IP system is low.
Most corporate approaches (firms’ proactive measures to handle piracy, beyond notifying/collaborating with government authorities: monitoring and reporting, distribution alert, product solutions, private eyes and investigators, networking, media exposure/public awareness) are also considered effective by the respondents. However, managers indicate that too much media exposure and public awareness may harm anti-piracy effectiveness.
Without interactions of managerial confidence in the IP regime, only private eyes and investigators are deemed effective: if firms do not have confidence in administrative/judicial IP enforcement, the effectiveness of corporate approaches is limited to the “private eyes and investigators” measure (the employment of external intelligence to conduct surveillance and gather evidence).
In the presence of managerial confidence in the IP system, distribution alerts become effective: warning distributors to be vigilant can help counter piracy. Conversely, product solutions (product modifications and innovation to stay ahead of counterfeiters, effective labelling and authentication features to differentiate the genuine from the fakes) are seen a less effective measure in the presence of confidence in the IP system.
The authors highlight the following practical implications: do not overlook administrative supports, particularly at the early stage of IP protection, which implies proactive communication with government officials in charge of IP protection, and providing information/training and actively registering IP rights; be mindful about too much media exposure and public awareness as this may backfire by providing information about the availability of especially good copies; as confidence in the IP system grows, move away from administrative supports and focus on distribution alerts – in general, passivity could be a serious mistake and there is much to be gained from proactive and positive actions; in the presence of confidence in the IP system, frequent product modifications with a view to discouraging counterfeiting may be counterproductive – in an environment of low confidence in the IP system, such product solutions can, though, have a beneficial effect.
[Date Added: Nov 20, 2008 ]