Monthly Archives: June 2006

After 300 posts gathering, commenting and sharing about IP in China, it’s time to focus on one aspect in particular: Enforcement. This December 2006 it will be 5 years after China has acceded to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Part … Continue reading →

If you type ‘intellectual property china’ in Google you’ll find: 1. SIPO2. A practical guide for US companies3. An old site of Steven Suranovic that wants to serve as a portal, but has links to advertisments to holiday destinations4. Ben … Continue reading →

The Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong and Guangdong province cooperate together in the protection of copyrights. In 2003 they established the Guangdong-Hong Kong Expert Group on the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights. Read the expert group’s press release here … Continue reading →

Li Xiran of the Shanghai Daily reports on something rather bizar. Local of farmers of Fanji town, Linquan county in eastern China’s Shandong Province registered a trademark and established an association to protect their watermelons crops. However, the Xin’an Evening … Continue reading →

Following the example of a female blogger (name not mentioned in the ChinaNews.cn article), who sued a famous website for reproducing her article without her permission and asked for a compensation of 100,000 yuan (US$12,500), more bloggers want their copyright … Continue reading →

A senior Chinese IPR governor, who remained unnamed in the Xinhua article, did not expect that China would be under internationa pressure on its handling of intellectual property rights already. The title of the Xinhua article ‘China faces international pressure … Continue reading →

Frank Ahrens of the Washington Post wrote the article ‘US Joins Industry in Piracy War’, about the US government’s support to MPAA and RIAA in the battle against copyright infringements in China and Russia. MPAA’s CEO Dan Glickman said about … Continue reading →

China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA) has officially joined the World Semiconductor Council (WSC). According to the organisations it is expected issues relating IP protection (layout designs of integrated circuits) will be resolved amicably. Read the Electronic News article here, head … Continue reading →

““These things originate in China and are made in factories that are subterranean cabins you access through a hole in the ground“, said Paul Gerrard, deputy head of UK Customs enforcement. Read Ciaran McGuigan’s article for Sunday Life here. Chinese … Continue reading →

Thanks to specilisation and economies of scale you find all kinds of clusters of IPR infringements in China; certain IPRs of certain product categories are prone to be infringed in certain provinces, regions or cities. Chinese Law professor Blog‘s Donald … Continue reading →

Richard Stallman, father of the free software movement, wrote that they might have more success enforcing copyright in China than Microsoft, Disney and Sony: “Disney wishes to stamp out semi-underground organizations that sell exact copies. With free software, regardless of … Continue reading →

Singapore’s TODAYOnline run an AFP story about whether Beijing markets still sell fake products, a day after some landlords of those markets had signed a memorandum of agreement with 23 luxury companies that they would not sell fake versions of … Continue reading →

Some counterfeit fashion items from China and India are very hard to detect. The quality can be as good as the genuine product. And some are priced as high as the real thing. Read D. Parvaz’ article for the Seatlle … Continue reading →

Richard Kuslan of Asia Business Intelligence wrote an excellent ‘Brief Introduction to Intellectual Property Rights in China’, which consists of the speech he gave at the World Trade Week. It starts with an interesting anectode, he experienced himself: An American … Continue reading →

HK Government has recruited youth as informers in the battle against internet piracy, read here. HK Customs and Excise Department will jointly launch the ‘Youth ambassador against internet piracy scheme’ together with the Intellectual Property Department. Why is the Excise … Continue reading →

“Five pirated Windows XP copies were found with the package saying they were copied from legal copies used in Shanghai government bureaus.” A senior official at the IT industry commission said that this was out of the question:““They are definitely … Continue reading →

Honda has announced it will sue SIPO for its decision to invalidate the exterior design patent application for Honda’s new version of the CR-V, see here. In the eyes of SIPO the new design was too similar to the original … Continue reading →

“Have you heard about the Chinese tourist that went on holiday to France?” this question has been asked over and over in China. The answers, however, became more and more interesting/dubious every time. A phenomenon well recorded in psychological science. … Continue reading →

The Chinese stores of French supermarket chain Carrefour have bounced fake Adidas Teamgeist balls, the official FIFA 2006 World Cup ball. They allegedly were provided by Sudiman Industrial and Trade Co. Ltd, a company in the nearby city of Hangzhou, … Continue reading →

Liu Li of China Daily covered 13 IPR violators that were sentenced to jail terms ranging from 1 to 7 year. Beijing Daxing District People’s Court:Lin Rongzhou, who bought 29,800 pirated optical disks and sold 5,300 of them for profit … Continue reading →

Last Saturday it was China’s National Cultural Heritage Day. A tangible reminder of some intangible treasures worth protecting. In August 2004, China joined the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage after ratification of the Standing Committee … Continue reading →

Remember Wednesday, (see here) when a Memory Of Understanding between 23 luxury brands and Beijing landlords of markets was signed? (including the notorious Xiushui Haosen Clothing Company, that was convicted in September to pay compensation to 5 luxury brands, see … Continue reading →

The Hong Kong Standard run an Associated Press story about American, European and Canadian steps toward WTO cases against China’s protectionism. The article included this paragraph: “Assistant Trade Representative Tim Stratford told the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) … Continue reading →

The two-strike policy (first suspension, then cancellation) based on a ‘trailblazing’ protocol, see here, was hailed by Peter Mandelson, EU Commissioner on June 7. Joseph Simone of Baker & McKenzie, representing the 23 international brands, was also enthousiastic. The Financial … Continue reading →

Peter Mandelson (EU trade commissioner) spoke with Bo Xilai (China’s commerce minister) in Beijing about trade and IPR. Audra Ang wrote an article about it for AP News, that was run by BusinessWeek.According Mandelson Bo had proposed to establish IPR … Continue reading →