Tiefenbrun, S. (1998). Piracy of intellectual property in China and the former Soviet Union and its effects upon international trade: A comparison. Buffalo Law Review, 46, 1-69.
This Article is a comparison of two countries in transition, China and Russia, and the causes and effects of the extensive practice of intellectual property piracy. Intellectual property piracy is committed by people and government agencies in both countries in violation of comprehensive domestic intellectual property laws and binding international agreements. A comparison is, by its very nature, a complex task. It attempts to tease out the elements of a network of interwoven issues underlying a crime committed in two different countries with similar political ideologies. The causes and effects of intellectual property piracy are intricately connected to, and affected by, the economy of the country in which the piracy is committed, the political history and ideology of the pirating nation, the culture of the people engaged in the piracy, and the adequacy of the legal system to enforce its intellectual property laws. This Article attempts to take these complex factors into consideration in the comparison.
This Article is organized into four parts. This Introduction examines the contradictions inherent in intellectual property legislation, counterbalanced by the negative effects of U.S. efforts to combat intellectual property piracy in the global trade market. China and Russia ineffectively enforce newly enacted intellectual property legislation and anti-piracy laws, which result in sizable revenue losses for the United States. Attempting to trace the causes of piracy, this Introduction examines in more detail the current economies of China and Russia and compares their contrasting approaches to transition from a planned to a market economy.
