Monthly Archives: July 2006

Austria’s Innovative ‘Innovationsschutzprogramm’ For Patents Will Become Reality Hannes Farnleitner, former federal Minister of Economic Affairs ofAustria said something remarkable in 2005: “We have an international patent documentation office in Vienna. And it is absolutely normal that a very vivid … Continue reading →

Today, the People’s Daily Online put the optimistic title ‘IPR Moves Impress US Official’ above an article about a visit of US Under Secretary for International Trade Franklin L. Lavin to China. “Referring to counterfeiting in China, Lavin told reporters … Continue reading →

The Motion Picture Association has finished an Asia-wide campaign against movie piracy. Results: China: 405 raids; 1,961, 255 pirated optical discs seized Hong Kong: 119 raids; 90 DVD-R burners seized; 56 people arrested Taiwan: 483 optical disc burners seized; 369,117 … Continue reading →

Mondaq’s newsletter has a brief article by Angela Wang & Co. (sollicitors, agents for trademarks) about the new Domain Name Dispute Resolution Measures which came into effect on 17 March 2006. Read here (free subscription required). It’s my humble opinion … Continue reading →

Games site Gamasutra went to Shanghai’s ChinaJoy game exhibition and saw that pirated Xbox 360 titles are widespread. Microsoft is denying that “the core security system has not been broken.” See Redwood’s official response here and Gamasutra’s article here.

Managing IP Magazine (July 10) had nominated four Chinese as most influentual in the field of IPR. Ms. Wu Yi (Vice Premier); Mr. Tian Lipu (Commissioner of SIPO); Mr. Zheng Chengsi (professor at the Law Institute of China Academy of … Continue reading →

Two subcommittees (on Rural Enterprises, Agriculture and Technology and on Tax, Finance and Exports) on the House of Reprentatives have held a joint meeting in the U.S. Congress to consider whether China is enforcing its laws on intellectual property rights … Continue reading →

A retired teacher, called Pan, from Huzhou, Zhejiang Province has invented a pen to beat short sightedness. Read China Daily’s article here.

Jocelyn Ford of Marketplace Public Radio reports about a Chinese Trademark squatter, a lawyer called Hou Songlin, who registered the PBS logo, never mind that PBS is an American non-profit organization facing budget cuts from US Congress. Trademark lawyer Joe … Continue reading →

Reason New censorship for Karaoke: IPR Protection or … Censorship? Mike Magnier wrote a funny article ‘China’s Karaoke Police Have a Request: Do It Mao’s Way‘ for the LA Times, about China’s Ministry of Culture which issued new rules to … Continue reading →

Yahoo run with a Reuters article about Warner Bros. new low budget China filmmaking joint venture “Crazy Stone,” released in cinemas on June 30, then followed with a DVD version selling for as little as 10 yuan ($1.25) just 12 … Continue reading →

Hong Kong has a new think tank: Savantas Policy Institute. Regina Ip, who was the former HK Secretary of Security, is now chairwoman of the board of governors of Savantas (Yahoo Actualités). According to Savantas, HK can be China’s platform … Continue reading →

ChinaTechNews has a short article about Taobao.com, the largest online auction site of China, read it here. It enforces copyright piracy in the following ways: remove counterfeit goods after receiving complaint letters from the brand owners; owners of online stores … Continue reading →

Dan Harris of China Law Blog attended a US Patent and Trademark Office’s seminar about Protecting your IP in China, see here the first of a series. Dan’s first favorite speaker was Kevin Brown, Nike’s director of global band protection … Continue reading →

‘Hong Kong enlists youth to fight piracy’ writes Keith Bradsher for the New York Times, which was published in the International Herald Tribune. Today the ‘Youth Ambassadors campaing’ starts with 1.600 children (in the age of 9-25) pledging their participation … Continue reading →

‘Ginseng Farmers Protect Crop and Reputation’ writes Brian Bull at the VOA News. Wisconsin ginseng farmer Butch Weege told Bull that Chinese officials recently contacted the Ginseng Board of Wisconsin regarding a customer complaint filed with the trade office in … Continue reading →

A short article titled ‘Beijing’s Xiushui Market in a dilemma: fakes still appear’ about Silk Street (Xiushui) market by Chinanews was published on IPR.gov.cn, see here. The article mentioned law suits of the last months and the Memorandum of Understanding … Continue reading →

I got hold of the chapters about the East Asian Countries by Ang Kwee Tiang of Collective Management And Related Rights edited by professor Daniel Gervais of University of Ottowa. Very interesting. Today, I spoke to Buma-Stemra, the Dutch CMO … Continue reading →

Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Hypothesis and Methodology 2.1 HypothesisChina’s alleged non-compliance with TRIPS can be viewed from different angles. One can zoom in on individual Chinese IPR provisions to see whether they violate TRIPS (frog’s perspective). Or one … Continue reading →

CH of Mobimania.com, a French site about mobile gadgets, posted a great article about Chinese mobile phone maker Telsda, which Chinese name consists of three characters, that can be translated with ‘seize the opportunities in the sky’. See what happens … Continue reading →

Joe McDonald wrote for the Associated Press a big article on how Piracy Hurts China’s Own Industries, which was picked up by the Washington Post. McDonalds writes:“Web sites that carry unlicensed copies of CDs often give away the music for … Continue reading →

One News reports about the ongoing discussion in New Zealand whether the Kiwis are too Politically Correct concerning China.Since New Zealand is “not significant on a global stage”, talking about the lack of IPR enforcement or working conditions in China … Continue reading →

Nokia has sued: Shenzhen Telsda Mobile Communication Industry Developing Co Ltd Song Xun Da Zhong Ke Electronic (Shenzhen) Co Ltd and their distributors: Beijing Tongwanbao Commerce & Trade Co Ltd, An Wai Avenue No 2 Branch Beijing Xin Tongwanbao Commerce … Continue reading →

Xiangyang Market in Shanghai, synonymous with counterfeit and pirated products, closed June 30th. But now it seems to have risen out of its ashes, in a hybrid form. The market stalls of Xiangyang meet Taobao, the Consumer-to-Consumer site of Alibaba.com. … Continue reading →