CHINA
Government Moves to Protect Intellectual Property Rights: The lack of legal protection for intellectual property in China may have cost companies more than $58 billion, the official China Daily reported. Beijing has set up a national firm charged with evaluating so-called invisible assets, such as copyrights, in order to help curb such losses in the future, the paper said. The report did not name companies being defrauded by illegal copying, but American producers of computer software and audio-visual products believe that abuse of intellectual property rights in China costs them about $1 billion annually. In recent weeks, China has taken pains to show the world it is doing something to reduce the pirating of products, seeking to head off U.S. economic sanctions and gain entry to the World Trade Organization to be formed next year.
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