Monthly Archives: December 2005

Super girls, American Idol knockoff with Chinese characteristics? Baidu, China’s most popular search engine, has made a list of the hottest words of 2005. And they more or less have to do with intellectual property. 1. MP3; Baidu had to … Continue reading →

Artists from all over the world saw their copyrighted works infringed by Beijing based arch-world.cn. This company captured without permission digital copies of copyrighted paintings of more than 2,800 artists in order to duplicate the works on demand.Thanks to an … Continue reading →

With a shrinking home market Hollywood is looking at foreign markets such as China to produce and sell their movies. China has great potential, but there are some problems too. Film producers that want to show their movie in China … Continue reading →

“While multinationals are reluctant to publicly discuss the proposed law, in private many executives say previous drafts left too much leeway for taking away intellectual property set tests for mergers and acquisitions that were too stringent.”Read more here.

Applications 2004 110,000 patent applications. 588,000 trademark applications Applications 2005130,000 invention patents applications (50 % from multinationals headquartered in developed countries; patent applications from American enterprises will exceed 20,000) Patent applications of companies from developed countries93 % in electronic transmission91 … Continue reading →

SIPO is preparing the third round of revisions of the Patent Law of the PRC. The revisions might include improvement of the current examination mechanism for utility model and design patent applications. SIPO also advised local governments to channel more … Continue reading →

“Maturity and intellectual property (IP) negotiations are considered key factors in China’s 3G development. Most profits in China’s telecom market flow into the overseas giants due to China’s lack of patents in the current technology, which is considered the crucial … Continue reading →

Holthuis International Lawyers (HIL) obtained approval from the Chinese Ministry of Justice to open an office in Shanghai. The firm is the only one in the Netherlands that has been awarded such approval. However, HIL will continue its cooperation with … Continue reading →

ChinaDaily recently published the article titled: ‘The IPR Year’. This article gives an overview of some of the (alleged) IP infringement cases in China: Intel vs. Shenzhen DongjinHisense Group vs. Bosch-SiemensWuxi Multimedia vs 3C Group (Sony, Philips, Pioneer)Unilin Beheer B.V. … Continue reading →

A channel run by a state-owned coal company in the city of Chifeng (Inner-Mongolia) with an audience of 30,000 viewers sliced Chen Kaige’s new movie The Promise into a 16 episode series, selling each episode for 2 yuan (0,25 dollar) … Continue reading →

China’s 58o million dollar online games market is changing its business model, because of rampant intellectual property infringement. Instead of collecting a monthly subscribtion fee for massive multi-player games, they are going to focus on selling in-game items. “DFC Intelligence’s … Continue reading →

The NASDAQ-listed Tramford Internationa Inc. is a Hong Kong based technology company with their main portfolio business based in the People’s Republic of China. Future Solution’ s Development Inc. , the newly acquired subsidiary of the Tramford has developed the … Continue reading →

If you think about China and cars it is easy to see doom scenario’s. If every Chinese wants a car that surely would result in environmental disaster. But according to the Xinhua article, China’s car producers have realised that they … Continue reading →

Colquba versus Colgate Joel Martinsen of Danwei (means ‘unit’ in Mandarin) wrote a funny piece about Colquba, a knockoff of Colgate. Of course not funny at all for Colgate. And besides there can be serious health problems too. “The “have … Continue reading →

Burns & Levinson will merge with Perkins to boost its intellectual property practise.“The new firm plans to open a part-time office in Shanghai early next year to bolster its work in China” Read more here.

On December 20th, Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Court ruled that Silk Alley Haosen Co., the management firm of the (in)famous shopping mall of Beijing for knockoff products, had not acted in time to stop the sales of bogus merchandise by … Continue reading →

Patent lawyer Lawrence Ebert of IPBiz blogged about Fiber Optic Designs’ IP adventure in China. “To show prior invention, Fiber Optics submitted a copy of the Trenton Times from December 2001. The copy had to be notarized by a notary … Continue reading →

See article here. China recognised the ‘recognition of foreign well-known marks’ since 2004 (See article 6bis of the Paris Convention). Finally, China has been a signatory of the Paris Convention and this treaty went into force in China already on … Continue reading →

Besides the law, there is technology to fight against counterfeiting. Radio Frequency Identification tags are brought into action to prevent false tickets at the Tennis Master Cup in Shanghai. However, necessity being the mother of invention, a new problem was … Continue reading →

After a public hearing the National Copyright Administration (NCA) of China and the Ministry of Information Industry announced in May 2005 that the Administrative Measures on Internet Copyright Protection will be implemented. This means in short that ISP’s have a … Continue reading →

March 29th–30 2006, Creative Commons China will be launched. The Creative Commons license system is being adapted (‘ported’ in CC-speak) to the Chinese jurisdiction. See here (in English translation) how they are doing that. More links about Creative Commons China … Continue reading →

ChinaDaily journalist Liu Li wrote an article about Liu Xiang, China’s famous Olympic 110-metre hurdles champion. The Beijing No 1 Intermediate People’s Court overruled an earlier verdict by the Beijing Haidian District People’s Court and ordered Life Style, the magazine … Continue reading →

On Chinese Patchwriting (TGIF) Chris Shei (University of Wales Swansea) wrote an interesting paper about plagiarism and the view of patchwriting by Chinese students studying in a UK higher education institution. Chinese culture emphasises a substantial period of imitating before … Continue reading →

Countries such as China, India and Brazil, want the WTO to set up a system to control how corporations, scientists and others in the developed world use of a nation’s native plants, animals and centuries-old knowledge to make pharmaceuticals, the … Continue reading →

On 28 November 2005, Coca-Cola brought an action in the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, asking the Court to overrule TRAB’s decision. The main feature of the Fanta bottle is the design of densely-distributed prism stripes surrounding the lower … Continue reading →

Danish company Aktieselskabet AF sued eBay Shanghai because it operated the servers of sites where products were offered that allegedly infringed trade marks of the plaintiff. Beijing no. 2 Intermediate People’s court accepted jurisdiction, but defendant eBay challenged this on … Continue reading →

The government of the capital of Guangdong province (Canton) Guangzhou, plans to launch a copyright protection system in karaoke parlors, according to the Guangzhou Daily. “The system will track which songs are played in karaoke parlors and will automatically update … Continue reading →

RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. has received notification that the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China (SIPO) has allowed its first patent application for the Company’s Thymosin beta 4 (TB4), wound healing technology platform. RegeneRx president and CEO … Continue reading →

December 11th, the USTR published a report about China’s WTO compliance, including China’s adherence to TRIPS. Pages 63 to 73 of the report cover IPR protection: “Overal, China’s efforts to bring its framework of laws, regulations and implementing rules into … Continue reading →

Todd Mayover has an interesting site: IP Counsel blog. He blogged about a discussion of Lindsay Esler and Annie Tsoi of Law firm Deacons about intellectual property in China. Gives a good overview of the situation. Read more here.

What is happening at the WTO? Yesterday to my knowledge nothing IP relevant happened at the WTO. If I am wrong please inform me ipdragon (at) gmail.com However, I found a nice summary at Yale Global where Dr. Susan Ariel … Continue reading →

During an industry convention in Beijing, Motion Picture Assn. of America chairman and CEO Dan Glickman said: “In 2008, China will be at the center of the world stage, hosting the 29th Olympic Games. It will be a terrific moment … Continue reading →

What do you do if you are a Chinese wireless service provider such as Kongzhong in cut throat competition? You try to add more value to your service such as an upgraded answering tone that used to be tuu…., into … Continue reading →

The IP summit of the year is about to start. The highest decision-making body of the WTO is meeting tomorrow in Hong Kong to talk about free trade and intellectual property. There will be a TRIPS review. “Non-violation complaints are … Continue reading →

The impact of WTO rules and international practices is felt strongly in enterprises’ internal management, wrote Liu Weiling for the DailyChina. “Intellectual property rights (IPR), for example, was a strange concept for many domestic companies several years ago. But the … Continue reading →

Hong Kong Standard’s Ni Ching-Ching wrote: “When some people see us doing things like brand protection and movies, they think there’s something inappropriate,” Shi said. “But what we are doing is in keeping with tradition. Monks from every dynasty had … Continue reading →

Read here the BSA/IDC study. It includes a 32 page whitepaper. Here is the link to a one-page summary for China. The study was well picked up by the media: MercuryNews, InternetNews wrote articles about it.

Donald Clark, of the Chinese Law Professor Blog, posted about condoms that are marketed under the brandnames Clinton and Monica, without consulting Clinton or Monica. Read more here. previous TGIF next

Last month Yu, Bo of About Intellectual Property made a brief summary of the Chinese search engine case based on news reports about the Haidian District Court of Beijing, not from the court’s original decision. Great work. Read here.

The Guardian’s Jonathan Watts wrote an interesting article about China’s biggest search engine and its ambitious CEO Robin Li. “Critics say these are minor adjustments to a design and business model that is largely a copy of Google. The reason … Continue reading →

“The approval, by WTO headquarters in Geneva Tuesday for effecting changes to the intellectual property agreement, makes permanent a decision on patents and public health originally adopted in 2003. The latest decision comes a week after WTO members agreed to … Continue reading →

Assistant U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) for Intellectual Property Victoria Espinel said December 7 that the trade office is collecting from U.S. industries information to see whether insufficient enforcement of IPR in China would justify a request for WTO dispute settlement … Continue reading →

Alfred Chuang, CEO of BEA, producer of entreprise infrastructure software, is quoted by Daryl K. Taft in Extreme Nano that he expects to see China take a leading role in IT as it has in manufacturing. According to Chuang China … Continue reading →

Vincent Lam wrote an article in the China Daily about the rise in Chinese IT spending and the consequences for IP in China. ““As research and development across the region gears up, we see intellectual property (IP) protection following suit. … Continue reading →

Willow Duttge wrote an article about Hong Kong’s efforts to clean its streets of counterfeited goods before the WTO summit about free trade and IP enforcement will be held.China’s Special Economic Region with its own Rule of Law and IP … Continue reading →

China’s Patent law has come a long way. It was build from scratch and modernised very rapidly. It was for example only last year that the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) started accepting electronic patent applications. In 1994 Pfizer applied … Continue reading →

Beijing Haidian District People’s Court on Tuesday found internet portal Sina guilty of copyright infringement. It has broadcasted the concert of August 2005 named He Lan Shan Rock Music Festival of He Yong, a singer reports the Beijing Times. Sina … Continue reading →

Lawfirm Rouse & Co. International has an excellent newsletter about IP called China IP Express. It has already published number 268 and an archive dating back to 1999. See here. In it you can read about a landmark litigation relating … Continue reading →

‘Putting pirates behind bars is the best deterrent’ is the title of an article by Achara Ashayagachat in the Bangkok Times. Beside praising Hong Kong and Singapore’s approach of criminal sanctions to IP infringements the article cites law firm Franck … Continue reading →

Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court ruled that wines marketed by Xiang Mu Tong Trading and bottled by Xiamen Golden Huanya Food were too similar to the tradename Hennessy, registered in 1990 in China.They had been produced under the names … Continue reading →