Enforcement at the Canton Fair: Challenges faced by rights owners seeking to assert IP rights

Rouse
Raymond Moroney
[email protected]

For those seeking to source products in China, the biannual trip in April and October to the China Import & Export Fair (or Canton Fair) is becoming more of an imperative. By the same token, an increasing number of local trading companies are aware of the types and designs of products that are in global demand. Arguably, this offers an opportunity to potentially copy those same products for export where they feel they can compete on price. Such practices serve to undermine long held misconceptions of rights owners that they are immune from a potential flood of cheap knock-off products in their home markets simply by choosing not to source or sell directly into China.