Striking the 'Rights' Balance Among Private Incentives and Public Fair Uses in the United States and China

Abstract:     
Any economically efficient intellectual property rights system must contain a balance between the required creativity and innovation needed to obtain the intellectual property rights and the economic investment needed to obtain that level of creativity. Most intellectual property rights systems are uniform across all industries. However, this results in inefficiencies in certain industries that may need more or less intellectual property rights protection than others. Governments that attempt to correct the inefficiencies can create long-term consequences in the quality or quantity of new creative works. On one hand, granting more intellectual property rights to certain industries may result in spoilage of IP assets. However, curtailing intellectual property rights and excusing fair use may impair economic incentive to create new IP. This is the balancing that both the United States and China must recognize when attempting to correct and adjust their intellectual property systems.

Keywords: Fair Use, compartive intellectual property, China, Fair Use patent, Fair Use copyright

JEL Classification: F43, O, O31, O34, O38

working papers series