It’s not that I’m against discussions amongst interested parties. In fact, this kind of thing can be quite useful. But how many of these ongoing bilateral dialogues are we going to end up with?

Japan and China on Sunday agreed to launch annual talks on jointly cracking down on copyright infringement and trademark piracy, the Japanese trade ministry said.

A memorandum of understanding was exchanged between Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Toshihiro Nikai and his Chinese counterpart, Commerce Minister Chen Deming at a Tokyo hotel.

“It is very significant that we exchanged a memorandum of understanding today on intellectual property rights… as this is an issue of international interest,” Nikai told reporters after a 50-minute meeting with Chen.

“This memorandum does not solve everything but we will set up a working group soon for detailed talks,” he said. “I want a forum to be joined by companies as well as academics so that we will be able to achieve concrete results.”

The memorandum says the talks will be at the level of senior officials and hosted alternately by the two countries. The first round of talks are expected later this year, a Japanese official said.

Japanese companies have protested about factories in China that produce fake products ranging from DVDs and fashion items to perfumes and electronics.

Tokyo hopes the talks, which will include Japanese officials from the police and the technology and science ministry if necessary, will put it in a stronger position to tackle the counterfeiting issue.

Japan had dispatched public-private missions to China since 2002 and lodged protests unilaterally but the new talks will realise “home and away negotiations” to improve the situation, an official said. [AFP link; h/t China Digital Times]

We already have IP talks with the U.S. and EU. Now Japan. Seems like some folks in MOC, maybe AIC, SIPO, etc. are going to be spending most of their time in diplomatic meetings and sitting around in airport lounges.

I understand that the big problems facing American IP owners may be different from those experienced by Japanese IP owners, but you know what? They aren’t that much different to justify this sort of duplication of effort.

Here’s a crazy idea — 4-party talks with the “big three” and China. I know, it will never happen. Want to know why? Because this is not primarily about problem solving, it is about each (foreign) government showing its IP constituency that it is “doing something” to combat the problem of IP infringement. Bilateral talks look so much better politically than multilateral talks. Much easier for the government folks to tell their constituents that they took their specific concerns into specific meetings. Afterward, they report to industry about what happened, reassuring them once again that they (the government) have their best interests at heart.

Sorry for the usual cynicism, but these government agencies have a shortage of talent. It therefore saddens me to see so much energy wasted on the same neverending, and widening, series of discussions that go over and over the same short list of issues.