Trade
Intellectual Property

The US is prepared to file a complaint with the World Trade Organisation against China for its alleged leniency towards piracy of movies and books, which will be the second this year and the fourth to be lodged by the US against China since Beijing joined the WTO in 2001. Two separate complaints will be filed, one addressing China's alleged reluctance to use criminal laws for people caught selling pirated DVDs and the other about expanding ''market access'' for American products in China.

The Chinese Supreme People's Court extended criminal penalties for music and movie piracy to people caught with smaller amounts of DVDs or CDs. Anyone caught with 500 pirated discs will face criminal prosecution, down from the previous 1,000 discs, and fines for piracy were raised to up to 15 times a pirate's illegal gains, up from double their revenues.