Adobe, China, and the Importance of Intellectual Property

Intellectual property rights are important and affect everyone in the design industry. From designers working with copyrighted and copyrightable materials, to multinational corporations developing and distributing software, intellectual property rights need to be respected. In the international marketplace, protecting those rights can sometimes become problematic.

On November 14th, Adobe announced that they’re dropping the price on shrink-wrapped Creative Suite packages in the mainland China market. Their goal is to encourage small- and medium-sized companies to purchase authentic products from licensed distributors rather than going with pirated goods.

Adobe Creative Suite Premium

This announcement comes on the heels of American politicos campaigning through Asian countries in order to expand trade and reinforce the importance of intellectual property rights. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as President George W. Bush and a number of others like San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, will meet with Chinese dignitaries in the coming weeks to discuss how China can better handle intellectual property theft.

Adobe’s strategy, to reduce cost and battle with software pirates, seemingly on their own terms, may or may not be a successful solution. In a recent Silicon.com interview, Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen said, “We can try to reduce the price of shrink software but when we just did that - even to below where it is elsewhere in the world - it wasn’t successful.”

According the WTO’s TRIPS Agreement, common international rules governing intellectual property benefit society “… in the long term when intellectual property protection encourages creation and invention, especially when the period of protection expires and the creations and inventions enter the public domain.”

Designers deal with intellectual property issues in the form of copyright on original and derivative works. Since we typically work from inspiration, elements of our designs are either pulled directly from favorite works or based significantly on what other have done before us. If it wasn’t for copyright protections, much of the originality of our solutions would be lost to plagiarism and the significance of brand identity would be but a fog of identical, repetitive, and meaningless imagery. The vibrant landscape of all forms of graphic design would have little meaning and a lack of innovation could lead to a stagnant field.

As with the designers who use their products, Adobe needs to innovate to stay on top of what its clients regularly demand. Without the checks and balances of enforceable intellectual property law, Adobe could become a brand-less software producer in a Chinese sea of software producers dominated by pirates.