A Framework for Assessing Compliance with the TRIPS Agreement

This project used a combination of research methods to assess the compliance of China’s intellectual property (IP) system with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). These methods included the use of a questionnaire as an initial contact with respondents in late 2005, with follow-up interviews taking place in 2006 face- to-face, via telephone and email. Qualitative data was also gathered from key texts such as the primary legislation to further aid a deeper understanding of the operation of China’s post-TRIPS intellectual property system. A further series of detailed semi-structured interviews were carried out in April 2015. This chapter will first outline the choice of these specific methods used before considering ethical considerations as well as key practical issues that were faced during this research such as translation and access and will conclude with an overview of the respondents and data collected.