Monthly Archives: January 2009

Huawei Top PCT Applicant 2008; China Sixth Largest User of PCT

The People’s Republic of China has the ambition to shift its manufacturing based economy to a knowledge based economy. Therefore Chinese companies need to innovate, and protect their innovations by patents, internationally. If a company registers its patent in one … Continue reading

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Copycats in China: Trains, Plains and … Automobiles

Planes, traines and … automobiles. Chinese copycats in all modes of transport. After this ruling by the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court against Zhongwei’s Zonda A9 that found the latter copying the MAN AG’s Neoplan Starliner, one might wonder … Continue reading

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Coming Up: China – Costa Rica Free Trade Agreement

After Chile and Peru, Costa Rica is the third Latin American country that is to negociate a free trade agreement with China. Read the AFP article here. Free trade agreements can play an important role in the protection and enforcement … Continue reading

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IP Dragon Weekend Game: Dyslectic Or Counterfeit

Ms Hannah Wood has an intriguing article about names very similar to famous ones in China. See Ms Wood’s article with pictures, here. Can you guess which are the original brands? The answer can be found by clicking on the … Continue reading

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Poisonous Optima Dog Food: Product Liability Or Blame The Counterfeiters?

Mr Ryan McLaughlin, blogger of Life in Suzhou, wrote about the death of Addie his beloved Golden Retriever around Christmas, read here. According to Mr McLauglin the cause is probably poisonous dog food. Addie was fed dog food from Optima, … Continue reading

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Indian High Court Claims Jurisdiction Against Chinese Cybersquatter of ICICIGROUP.COM

Malathi Nayak of Livemint has a very interesting article about who has the jurisdiction over Chinese entities if they infringe intellectual property rights via the internet. In this case a Chinese entity had registered the domain name icicigroup.com which is … Continue reading

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Electric Guitar Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition Makes Itself Heard Against Beijing Infringers

IP Dragon welcomes a new organisation that will fight the manufacturers of and traders in counterfeit guitars. The Electric Guitar Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition (EGACC), founded by four guitar manufacturers; Ibanez, Gretsch, Fender and Paul Reed Smith, in March 2008 and will … Continue reading

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World Trademark Review: “US crowns China top of the counterfeiters”

Adam Smith of the World Trademark Review wrote an article that put a few of the actual news events into perspective.: The news of the US customs that the People’s Republic of China is number one origin of counterfeit goods … Continue reading

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Zen And the Art Of Intellectual Property in China

I love that title (remix of perfect book title: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig, which is a remix of the title Zen in the Art of Archery, by Eugen Herrigel who brought Zen to Europe … Continue reading

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IP Dragon Writes Book About Intellectual Property in China

Dear readers, I am delighted to announce that I am writing a book for Oxford University Press about intellecual property rights in China. It will be published in 2010. I thank all the (anonymous) peer reviewers that have given feedback … Continue reading

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IP Dragon Wins Danwei’s Olympic Model Worker Award 2008

IP Dragon is proud and happy to have received Danwei’s Model Worker Award for 2008 (“the best of the China blogs”), in the category Law & Intellectual Property, for the second time in a row (2007). Only this time the … Continue reading

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US Customs Seizure Statistics 2008: “China number one, India number two and Hong Kong number three counterfeit producer”

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and U.S. Customs Enforcement divisions of Homeland Security gives some statistics about the numbers, characteristics and origins of counterfeit goods seized in the U.S. in 2008.IPR seizures of goods from China rose … Continue reading

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All Clichés But Still True: Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement in China Leaves Room For Improvement

France24 reports in a 2 minutes 51 seconds video (from April 2008) about the rampant violations of IPR in China and the insufficient measures to tackle the problem. One big déjà vu all over again… We see the familiar in … Continue reading

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Professor Daniel Gervais’ New Book Includes: Confidential Interim Report DS 362

Who won the IPR dispute at the WTO between China and the U.S.? That was the name of my blog posting in October 2008 and gave some leaked information. But what does the official information say? According to WTO document … Continue reading

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Microsoft Anti-Piracy: Are Your Eyes Shining Because of China’s IPR Enforcement Efforts or Shenzhen’s Efforts?

Xinhua reported that the Shenzhen Futian Court on 7 January 2009 sentenced 11 people who violated Chinese criminal and copyright laws to make pirated Microsoft software and distribute copies to Australia, Canada, Germany, the United States and other countries. Brad … Continue reading

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Japanese Companies Can Register Chinese Copyights in Japan: save 50 percent time

Copyright is an automatic right, which arises when it is created. (because of the ‘no formalities provision’ of the article 5 (2) Berne Convention). However you can register your copyright with China’s National Copyright Administration, which can be helpful to … Continue reading

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Trademarks in China: Nomen Est Omen

Stan Abrams of China Hearsay fame blogged about why the car manufacturer SAIC choose for the name Roewe and how to pronounce that name. He contemplates that: “As a Chinese brand, the English name is of secondary importance. However, if … Continue reading

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Does China Export In Violation of License EU Train Technology Back To Europe?

Mr Philippe Mellier, CEO of Alstom Transport, the second manufacturer (after Bombardier Transportation) of high-speed trains, locomotives and metro cars, is calling on countries for a boycot of Chinese trains according to the Financial Times, here. In an interview Mr … Continue reading

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Well Known and Less Known Aspects Of Well-Known Marks

In the USTR 2008 Report to Congress on China’s WTO compliance on page 4, one can read the following remarkable sentence: “…the promotion of famous Chinese brands of merchandise using what appear to be prohibited forms of financial support, …” … Continue reading

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USTR in 2008 Report to Congress On China’s WTO Compliance: Still Not Satisfied After All These Years

One of the priority issues in the 115 page 2008 Report to Congress On China’s WTO Compliance, released by the United States Trade Representative (USTR) in December is, unsurprisingly, the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in China. Below … Continue reading

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Slow As A Turtle? Copyright Protection Expiration in China: Lifetime Plus Fifty

IP Dragon‘s feline friend has an interesting post December 31, 2008, about the expired protection of copyrights for authors that died seventy years ago, including the painter Wang Zhen (1867-1938), read Mr Jeremy Phillips’ article for IP Kat here. According … Continue reading

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EU Experience and Practice Must Show China The Way Concerning IPR Protection At Exhibitions

It is crucial for companies to showcase their new products to the world at trade fairs and exhibitions. Hower, these places welcome potential customers but also IPR infringers. To make the bonafide exhibitors less vulnerable to IPR infringements and deal … Continue reading

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Comparison Between The IPR in China Relevant Provisions Of the Foreign Trade Law 2004 and 1994

I have just added links to the Foreign Trade Law of the People’s Republic of China 1994 and 2004 on IP Dragon’s blogroll ( under “IPR in China Laws and Regulations”). The IPR relevant article 6 Foreign Trade Law 1994 … Continue reading

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