Intellectual Property Protection in China - funding report

The Institute of Asia and Pacific Studies (IAPS) together with an award of Spark funding from the Business School enabled me to visit China for a research trip in April 2015. The purpose of this trip was to update my understanding of the intellectual property (IP) system in China through a series of detailed face-to-face interviews in Beijing and Shanghai.

During the two weeks I was in China, I carried out around twenty semi-structured interviews with a variety of respondents ranging from multinational companies, leading lawyers, and IP specialists to small business owners. This interview data is now in the process of being transcribed and I will be carrying out further analysis of this data during my forthcoming study leave in semester 1 2015/16. I also attended the 3rd China (Shanghai) International Technology Fair which helped me to appreciate the importance of IP to many businesses in China as well as giving me the opportunity for more informal discussions with stakeholders in the IP system.

I am very grateful for the generous support of IAPS which assisted my trip and without which, I would have been unable to obtain such detailed and personal testimonies about the operation of the current IP system on the ground in China.

Dr Kristie Thomas, Nottingham University Business School