Intellectual property rights (IPR) violation by China is an important issue in United States-China relations and should be curbed before the situation worsens. In order to comprehend the importance of intellectual property rights (IPR) and their enforcement, one needs to realize the immense impact it has for the American economy. All patented, copyrighted, and trademarked materials and products are considered intellectual property. Therefore, it refers to a great variety of American products, such as computer software, music recordings and videos (Mastel). They constitute 6 percent of the GDP of the United States. Altogether, intellectual property generates billions of export dollars for the United States every year (Mastel). Therefore, it is evident that intellectual property plays a large role in the American economy.
China's large-scale production of pirated intellectual property products cuts into American earnings (Mastel). Every day, approximately thirty Chinese factories, mostly based in Southern China, produce thousands of illegal compact discs that are transported to markets, as far as Canada (Mastel). Illegally copied recordings, films, and computer programs can be easily found in China (Mastel). Most of the products are shipped to East Asia, where they surpass legitimate products in sales because of the unfair price advantage (Senser 7). Pirated copies of Microsoft programs can be purchased for as little as $3 on the streets of Beijing ("Software Piracy"). According to Mastel, the total loss to IPR violation by China amounts to one billion dollars in American exports. Twenty thousand jobs could have been created if pirated products were not sold in China (Mastel).
Not only does piracy affect the United States, Chinese record companies and musicians are also adversely affected by this situation. In the fledgling music industry of China, the livelihoods of musicians and the record companies are severely h...