German Museum Duped by Fake Terracotta Warriors
Aggregated Source: China HearsayChinese cultural authorities are threatening legal action over fake "Terracotta Warriors" that appeared at a German museum in a scam that fooled thousands of people, state press reported.
"It is a serious act of fraud and has implications for intellectual property rights," said Chen Xianqi, a spokesman for the cultural heritage bureau in Shaanxi province, home of the original 2,200-year-old life-size clay soldiers.
I guess the German government won’t be complaining about fake products from China for a couple of weeks until this story dies down.
As to the legal claim based on intellectual property rights, I may not be an expert on IP law, but this looks weak. Hey, wait a minute, I am an expert on China IP law, and this definitely does not look like a case of IP infringement.
What IP rights are we talking about here? I hope he wasn’t thinking about copyright, an IP right that lasts at most 50 years after the death of the creator. Let’s see, the Terracotta Warriors are how old? Well over 2,000 years - I don’t think copyright is going to work here.
There may be some relevant international treaties about protection of cultural objects or something (although I doubt that fits here), and the German museum certainly has a fraud case on its hands, but IP infringement? Gimme a break. All of a sudden, everybody thinks they’re an IP lawyer now.
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Copyright China Hearsay
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