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Adam Smith of World Trademark Review wrote a column about China's Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) Yang Xueshan, who made a controversial remark: that the innovative elements of copycat products should be protected and encouraged. Mr Smith interviewed yours truly:

"Danny Friedmann, an IP rights consultant in China and author of IP Dragon, supports Yang in this, but disagrees with his reported statement that knockoff products should not be labelled as piggybacking on another's intellectual property without proper assessment. "If you base your innovation on existing proprietary technology or design or a brand, it is piggybacking," said Friedmann. "That does not say that the innovation is not of a high standard or not sorely needed. If you steal paint and canvas and then paint a beautiful piece of art, you are both a thief and an artist. Yang wants to stress only the latter.""

Read Adam Smith's column here.

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