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Chinese President Vows To Boost Intellectual Property Protection (afr.com)
hackingbear writes: In the opening of China's first import-themed trade fair, President Xi Jinping promised tougher penalties for intellectual property theft, a key concern of the Trump administration, in front of leaders and executives from 3,600 companies from more than 170 countries. China has been steadily advancing intellectual property protection over the years. In addition to filing twice as many patents as the U.S. in 2017, up nearly 14 folds from 2001, it is also increasingly being selected as a key venue for patent litigation by non-Chinese companies, as litigants feel they are treated fairly as foreign plaintiffs won the majority of their patent cases in 2015 (though that likely attracts patent trolls). China's journey from piracy to protection models the journeys of the U.S. which had blatantly violated intellectual properties in building its modern industry.
The estate of Charles Dickens would like some royalties for all his books that were sold in the USA without a cent going to him would be another example of the top of my head.
The reason that spinning and weaving are often brought up is that in the late 18th early 19th century these where the high tech cutting industrial techniques of the age. They where the equivalent of chip making today.
Not only was IP theft rampant it was state sanctioned, with incentives offered to foreign nations to come to the USA with secrets that where not their own.