Infringement of intellectual property rights of industrial design: multinationals´ strategy, practice, and concerns in China

Industrial design innovation can improve product´s utility, make its quality and reliability perceptible, create an emotional and aesthetic bond with consumers, thus enhance a product´s competitive position. By influencing the incentives to innovate, design rights protection is a significant determinant of industry growth. This paper examines how multinationals, mainly of the consumer electronics industry, protect their design rights in China. The focus is on how these multinationals proactively prevent infringement of their design rights, and how they react to design rights infringement under China´s intellectual property protection system, along with other institutional and cultural characteristics. Multinationals´ concerns and problems with design rights protection in China are also addressed. Our study suggests that design rights protection practiced by multinationals in China may shed some light for Chinese companies if they desire to reach larger markets, boarder technological resources and more business success