Monthly Archives: January 2006

CAV Warner Home Entertainment, a joint venture of Warner Home Video and China Audio and Video Corporation will launch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire DVD first in China. If it would do otherwise, it reckoned, pirated DVDs would … Continue reading →

The Hong Kong High Court ruled Thursday that uploaders of copyrighted music could no longer hide behind a “cloak of anonymity” on the Internet. Jonathan Cheng wrote an article about it for the HK Standard here.

Mark Cohen, the intellectual property lawyer dispatched to China in 2004 to protect U.S. IP rightholders against piracy. Cohen is officially on assignment from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Cohen: “The question is not, is there law. It’s what … Continue reading →

The experience with the Red Guards, overzealous youth who handed in their peers to the communist authorities, if they manifested anything ‘bourgeois’ during the Cultural Revolution, is painfully fresh for many people in China. Now it seems that the Hong … Continue reading →

The Chinese meaning of copyright “Copyright; the right to copy” previous TGIF next

Peter Warren wrote an article for The Guardian about the Chinese perception of hacking and to a lesser extend about their perception towards infringement of intellectual property. You will find the latter passages quoted below. Feng Ma, an expert on … Continue reading →

The National Football League, Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks filed suit in Wayne Circuit Court on Monday naming three suspected counterfeiters and 400 “John Doe” counterfeiters. Circuit Judge John A. Murphy signed a temporary restraining order allowing NFL investigators to … Continue reading →

The Japanese animated film Sgt. Keroro is popular in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and other Asian countries. It features five alien frog characters. Rampant piracy of the merchandise and unauthorized downloading of the animated film from the Internet is infringing … Continue reading →

Remember the somewhat vague report about the Chinese crackdown at the end of last year on the 17 production lines that were making pirate CD’s were shut down and 79 newspapers and 50 types of software games were banned? See … Continue reading →

On January 20th, 2006 deputy U.S. Trade Representative Peter Ａllgeier explained the legal rationale of the first request based on article 63 (3) of the TRIPS Agreement to outline the steps China is taking to comply with TRIPS in a … Continue reading →

According to an article in CRI a spokesperson for the National Copyright Administration (中文）said that China solved 172 web copyright infringements cases over the past three months since the launch to curb online piracy. Read more here.

The US goverment has started with Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy (STOP!) and provides a China Toolkit, Taiwan Toolkit etc. Here the basics are explained about copyright, trademark and patent law and how you could reduce infringement of goods at trade … Continue reading →

In the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region 364.000 pirated audio and vido discs were seized. Ning Xiuyu, an official with the region’s cultural administration said that the campaign has produced tangible effects. “But we know piracy is still rampant in some … Continue reading →

ChinaDaily is giving some IPR related facts of last year. For example:In August Managing Intellectual Property (paid subscribtion), named four Chinese people, including Vice-Premier Wu Yi, as the World’s 50 Most Important IP Figures in 2005. Wu was also on … Continue reading →

ChinaDaily asked Beijing based Dequan Law Firm to give an overview of patent strategies, including cross-patenting and the patent net. Read here.

IP lawyers, modern warriors with different weaponsWinning a legal battle in China requires more than the will to succeed. Jones Day’s J. Benjamin Bai quoted Sun Tzu’s Art of War in relation to competitors that want to invalidate your clients’ … Continue reading →

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) is considering whether it will send a complaint to the WTO dispute resolution body about infringement of trademarks and copyrights. What’s the problem? Chinese companies have registered their products with names of places in Taiwan, … Continue reading →

At a crackdown last year, 17 production lines that were making pirate CD’s were shut down and 79 newspapers and 50 types of software games were banned. Last Tuesday Liu Yunshan, head of the governing Communist party’s Publicity Department said … Continue reading →

Dutch company Philips Electronics is to adopt within six months a new licensing system, called Veeza, to curb the illegal use of its patented CD-R technology. Veeza was developed so that throughout the chain from customs, traders, retailers to consumers … Continue reading →

The Institute for Law and Technology (ILT) conference on patents in China will start today (January 19-20) in San Francisco, see here. According to the ILT there are still US patent attorneys that counsel against seeking patent protection in China … Continue reading →

“Hong Kong customs seized memory sticks of forged trademark worth 1.03 million HK dollars (132,989 U.S. dollars). The 535 memory sticks were found in a 26 year old man’s rucksack when he entered the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) … Continue reading →

“Piracy is still the key blocking issue to developing China’s digital music industry, but online piracy is being attacked both by the government and industry music labels.” But according to a report (paid) by In-Stat there is light at the … Continue reading →

Director General Jesper Kongstad of Danish Patent and Trademark Office (DKPTO) visited SIPO deputy commissioner Li Yuguang. The latter made proposals on future cooperation between SIPO and DKPTO. The two sides agreed to strengthen their cooperative relations, especially on IP … Continue reading →

J. Benjamin Bai and Kam W. Law (both lawyers at Jones Day wrote an interesting article about customs protection.China promulgated its customs protection regulations in 1995.December 2003, the regulations were revised to increase the power of the customs to investigate … Continue reading →

Dutch chemial DSM-daughter Dyneema starts a patent case against Chinese Hangzhou Pivot. According to DSM Hangzhou Pivot is infringing its Dyneema-fibre patent, used for armouring cockpit doors. DSM asks the Paris Court to order an injunction of the sale of … Continue reading →

Tod Datz wrote, a great article called ‘Faked in China’ for the Chief Security Officer Online. The article starts with the lost of innocence of Will-Burt Co. , a producer of night-scan telescoping masts. After a honeymoon week Shenzhen Superway, … Continue reading →

Invest Korea, Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency’s foreign direct investment promotion arm, compared South Korea to China in seven areas for business conditions and six for living conditions. On the frontpage of Invest Korea (no permanent link) IP Dragon found:“The intellectual … Continue reading →

The Taiwanese Mainland Affairs Council published an assessement of the social and economic risks (including legal risks as counterfeiting). Read here.

Rouse IPEX issue No. 268 reported on a landmark litigation implying registrability of a colour-combination trade mark. We can now read in Rouse IPEX issue No. 270 that the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People’s Court has given its decision: “That, although … Continue reading →

If they can control it there, they can control it anywhere, it’s up to you, China. US assistent secretary of commerce for market access and compliance David S. Bohigian, said that the United States will closely watch measures by the … Continue reading →

I’ll be backIP Dragon is stretching the meaning of TGIF a bit and goes on holiday.I’ll be back January 16th with lots of inspiration, I hope. previous TGIF next

IBC is organising the IPR in China Conference, Monday 20th March 2006 in Café Royal, London. It is especially relevant for companies suffering from infringement or considering setting up operations in China. If you look at the panelists of the … Continue reading →

During the fifth Trilateral Policy Dialogue Meeting between the Commissioners of SIPO, Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) that was held in Taej, South Korea on December 1st, 2005, Chinese commissioner Tian Lipu introduced some … Continue reading →

Columnist Philip Lin of Pacific Epoch is somewhat optimistic about brand protection in China now that the fakes are more concealed at Silk Street (Xiushui) mall after the Beijing operator and vendors got convicted and were ordered to pay 13.000 … Continue reading →

Randolph Hobson Guthrie III pleaded guilty of criminal copyright and trademark infringement, illegally importing infringing goods and money laundering before U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr (Southern District of Mississippi), after being deported from China to the US. Gurthrie faces … Continue reading →

The renowned business magazine gave some IP related advice, although very short. The black box method was mentioned to prevent possible infringements: to produce component parts in multiple locations around the country and then assembling them in a single, low-tech … Continue reading →

Duncan Freeman wrote an article for the Asian Times about some indicative statistics of the European Commission on Chinese pirated goods seized in China. The numbers are from 2004, because although the article was published this week, Freeman wrote it … Continue reading →

Paul Tan from Malysia raves and rants on the automobile industry: 1. Laibao SR-V vs. Honda CR-V2. Geely Merie vs. old C-class and E-class Mercedes Benz3. Chery QQ vs. Chevy Spark4. GreatWall Motors vs. Toyota Hilux5. Sing SUV vs. Nissan … Continue reading →

William Heinze of IP/Updates wrote about the value of defensive patent filings here. As a case in point he used the Fiber Optic Designs drama. Now Heinze blogged about law professor (University of California, Berkeley) Rob Merges’ essay A Transactional … Continue reading →

“At present, the annual copyright trade volume of the United States is more than 500 billion US dollars, and the figure in China is only 100 billion yuan (around 12 billion US dollars).“ Read more here.

1. TOEFL exam paper copyrightBeijing-based New Oriental Education Group infringed copyrights of the exam papers for the TOEFL-tests (Test of English as a Foreign Language) developed by the US-based Educational Testing Service. New Oriental was ordered to pay 10 million … Continue reading →

Liu Li of the ChinaDaily wrote that the IPR Tribunal of the Beijing High People’s Court ruled that Beijing Wangshi Baili Commercial Company, a department store to pay 50,000 yuan (US$6,200) to luxury accessories producer Alfred Dunhill because of a … Continue reading →

Starbucks Corp. comes out victorious in the trademark related law suit against Shanghai Xingbake Cafe that started December 2004 and ended on the last day of 2005. Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court ruled that Xingbake has conducted illegal competition … Continue reading →