China will take fresh measures to fight product piracy, Wen Jiabao, prime minister, told a German government delegation yesterday, conceding that there were still "many problems".
"The protection of intellectual property is not only an international duty for us but it also serves the interests of China," Mr Wen said, adding that his government was considering both "administrative" and "judicial" tools to better protect companies' proprietary information.
Mr Wen was responding to demands by German chancellor Angela Merkel for a more energetic approach to fighting intellectual property theft. Ms Merkel was on the first leg of her first visit to China yesterday, which takes her to Shanghai today.
Ms Merkel said she had addressed the issue during her talks with Mr Wen. "Because we are technological leaders in many areas, protection of intellectual property is crucial to our success," she later told the High-Technology Dialogue forum, attended by more than 300 German and Chinese business and industry representatives.
"But I observe with great interest the rise in China's technological capacities," she said. "That should give China a higher stake in effectively protecting intellectual property."
At the same meeting, Michael Glos, Germany's economics minister, said a reliable framework for intellectual property protection was paramount, especially for many small- and medium-sized German companies that have invested in China and do not have a way of protecting themselves against theft.
German industrialists complain about the lax enforcement by China of its anti-piracy laws, about the lack of deterring sanctions and about the difficulties German companies face when trying to obtain redress in courts.
In addition, they say, intellectual property theft is encouraged by Chinese laws that force German companies to disclose highly detailed proprietary information and trade secrets about their technologies, for instance when bidding for public tenders.
Such forms of "forced technology transfers" top the list of complaints German business has asked Ms Merkel to address during her visit.
"We need a better infrastructure for the protection of intellectual property," Heinrich von Pierer, former chief executive of Siemens, said at yesterday's gathering.
