April 8, 2016, President Johann Schneider-Ammann, the Swiss President met with Zhang Dejiang (张德江), Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress in Beijing. According to China’s state-news agency Xinhua, Zhang “called on the two countries’ parliaments to strengthen mutual learning in the legislation of intellectual property protection, innovation and entrepreneurship as well as vocational education.” China can also benefit from Swiss expertise on eco-agriculture, environmental friendliness, branding innovative and quality products.
Of course a Swiss-Chinese Dialogue on IP is going on since at least 2011 and culminated in an informal mechanism for complaints of Swiss companies regarding IPR infringements on the Internet in 2014, see here.
According to the Swiss Customs Administration 71 percent of counterfeit goods originated from China in 2015. See more here.
Price and place of purchase are often good indicators of whether a product is a counterfeit. For example one can expect that the Victorinox Swiss Army Knife ‘Champ’, is a counterfeit if it costs 8 US dollar while it normally costs 99 US dollar, and is available via an online market instead of via a licensed outlet. See the Counterfeit Report.
Are China and Switzerland both dragons? “Suan Long” (Double Dragon) restaurant in Zug, Switzerland. Photo: Danny Friedmann Copyright 2016