ARLINGTON, VA. - Building on its longtime work to advance innovation and global competitiveness within the high-tech industry, the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) today released A Best Practices Guide to Intellectual Property Rights Protection in China. The guide, written in collaboration with former Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for China Affairs Charles Freeman III and the China Alliance law firms, seeks to address one of the primary innovation-related concerns U.S. technology companies have raised and to help companies better work within one of our most significant trading markets, said EIA President & CEO Dave McCurdy.

"China offers almost limitless opportunity for our industry and so many others," McCurdy said, "but the challenges go hand-in-hand with those opportunities, and there is no greater challenge for the businesses EIA represents than the protection of their most prized intellectual asset: innovation."

China's intellectual property rights regime has improved some since the country's accession to the World Trade Organization, it can still be difficult for companies to protect their rights, and this issue will almost certainly be on the agenda of this week's discussions between President Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao.

EIA's unique, user-friendly guide provides answers to common questions about intellectual property rights in China, as well as questions that companies might not think to consider and a series of 10 best practices. The issues covered in the guide range from preparation for entering the Chinese market and registering patents, trademarks and copyrights; to protecting trade secrets and coordinating with customs officials to improve enforcement. In addition, the guide includes a list of U.S. government resources for IPR protection and a set of guiding principles for securing the supply chain. While EIA represents the high-tech sectors of industry, Protecting Intellectual Property Rights in China is applicable to manufacturing and innovative companies across the spectrum of industry.

"We hope that this best practices guide will help companies better understand the risks, responsibilities and opportunities of producing valuable high-tech products and components in the global market," said McCurdy.

Praise for Protecting Intellectual Property Rights in China has already come from Congress, the Administration and others:

"It is great to have the business community behind such an important publication as EIA's Best Practices Guide," said Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT). "While Congress is working hard to ensure that we have effective intellectual property protection policies in place and that we hold our trading partners to the standards on which they've agreed, companies doing business in this global economy can also help themselves by following best practices and knowing the ins and outs of the law."

"The theft of intellectual property strikes at the heart of one of the U.S.'s greatest comparative advantages - our innovative capacity," said Chris Israel, Coordinator of International Intellectual Property Enforcement at the U.S. Department of Commerce. "While we in the Administration do all that we can to improve IPR protection around the world and ensure the most effective enforcement possible, we can't do it without industry's cooperation. EIA's Best Practices Guide is a great tool that will allow companies to better navigate the laws, risks and opportunities in China, and it truly complements the U.S. government's efforts and engagement on this priority. Few issues are as important to the current and future economic strength of the U.S. as our ability to create and protect intellectual property."

Ted Fishman, the author of China, Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World, also weighed in: "Industrialized countries made a bargain to shed low-wage commodity manufacturing to the developing world in exchange for the promise of our moving up the ladder in the knowledge economy. Yet without the means to protect the intellectual property that are the core of knowledge economies, the bargain is no bargain at all. Industrialized companies see their best idea products migrate to regimes where IP protection means little and thus end up relinquishing both basic manufacturing and advanced work, too. No industry group has seen this challenge more comprehensively than the Electronic Industries Alliance, and this work thoroughly lays out the problem and is the most thoughtful yet on how individual companies and whole industries ought to address it."

A Best Practices Guide to Intellectual Property Rights Protection in China will be provided free to EIA's nearly 1,300 member companies. Click here to purchase a copy or to contact EIA about the issues of intellectual property rights protection or China, please contact AnnieLaurie Walters at (202) 232-6571 or awalters@crosbyvolmer.com.

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About EIA: The Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) is the leading advocate in Washington, D.C., for the U.S. high-tech industry. The Alliance, which traces its origins to the Radio Manufacturers Association (chartered in 1924), is a partnership of electronic and high-tech associations and companies whose mission is to promote the market development and competitiveness of the $400 billion U.S. high-tech and electronics industries through domestic and international policy efforts. EIA's corporate members - nearly 1,300 - provide products and services ranging from microscopic electronic components to state-of-the-art defense, space and industry high-tech systems, as well as the full range of telecommunications and consumer electronics products. Headquartered in Arlington, Va., the Alliance is made up of the Electronic Components, Assemblies & Materials Association (ECA); the Government Electronics & Information Technology Association (GEIA); JEDEC; the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA); and leading consumer electronics companies who participate in EIA's Environmental Issues Council. EIA is also heavily involved in cyber security issues through the Internet Security Alliance (ISAlliance), and education issues, through the National Science & Technology Education Partnership (NSTEP).