Amid accusations made by the United States of intellectual property theft by China, companies and experts engaged with the Chinese market voiced different opinions.
U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence recently accused China of continuing to "aid and abet the theft" of U.S. IP and said the Trump administration would tackle IP issues after a "Phase One" deal with China.
"The Americans put a lot of pressure on China on improving IP protection and enforcement of IP laws. Personally, I don't like the approach of putting pressure," said Frank-Juergen Richter, chairman of Horasis, an international think tank based in Switzerland.
"Both parties should sit together and find solutions. I think the China side is open for negotiation, discussion and dialogue to find a compromise," Richter said in an interview at the Horasis China Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Tuesday.
More IP cases are being filed by Chinese citizens in China, "because they have realized that IP is at the center of a company's success and that it's something to protect", he said. "It's a changing mindset."
Richter said the U.S. should pay more attention to China's progress and contributions than to its negatives.
"We always seem to hear from Western countries that China is just copying, but it's something of the past; now China is at the forefront," he said.
Despite Pence's criticism of "case after case of intellectual property theft involving China" last year, the U.S.-China Business Council's survey shows a different trend.
"We recently did a survey of our members and zero percent said IP is getting worse (in China), and many people said IP is getting better," Craig Allen, president of the council, said while attending the Horasis meeting.
"Part of the progress has been the fact that we've all become much more aware, and we understand how better to protect IP," said Roger Royse, founder of the Royse Law Firm, based in Silicon Valley.
He said he's hopeful that there will be an internationally consistent standard of enforcement of IP rights in China.
"The biggest thing is that China is very innovative by itself," said Stacy Kenworthy, CEO of HellaStorm, an Alpharetta, Georgia-based tech company.
"It's going to solve the problem by itself. If they don't use our solution, then they will come up with their own solution," Kenworthy said.
