Meeting the Challenges of International Brand Expansion in Professional Sports : Intellectual Property Right Enforcement in China Through Treaties, Chinese Law and Cultural Mechanisms

The article focuses on various aspects of intellectual property law, international law and sports law. Specifically, the article exams methods by which sports teams and organizations can best protect their intellectual property rights (IPR) in the emerging commercial sports market of China. The article takes a comparative look at Western and Chinese intellectual property laws and goes through various methods of how teams can protect their IPR while developing their brand in China. The article also looks at how China's cultural development impacts the nation's view on IPR protection and enforcement, and examines the Confucian values underpinning China's legal and social framework. Finally, the article argues that in order to achieve effective IPR enforcement in China, sports teams and organizations should work within the nation's preexisting social and legal framework rather than rely exclusively on recently adopted Westernized IPR laws and international treaties