Monthly Archives: April 2011

Intellectual Property and Indigenous Innovation, Two Opposite Roads For Foreign IPR Holders

Photo Danny FriedmannIP and indigenous innnovationroads going in opposite directions? The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission will hold hearings on China’s intellectual property  and indigenous innovation policies on May 4th. Emphasis will be given on the consequences of these … Continue reading

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The Process of Trademark Counterfeiting Captured

How An External DVD Drive Becomes A Counterfeit Apple in 5 Minutes Dong Men (东门= East Gate) in Shenzhen is an incredible place. You can find buildings with small shops that all sell one component of a mobile phone or computer … Continue reading

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Forgive Them For They Know Not What They Do. Now Do They?

God has strange lodgers Nick Squires reports for The Telegraph that 13 million pounds worth of counterfeit souvenirs was seized before the beautification of the late pope John Paul II. The products involved were ““family packs” of plastic rosaries which … Continue reading

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Copyright Piracy of Communist Books is Not Patriotic

Photo Danny Friedmann“A book is like a garden that you can put into your pocket” IP Dragon Weekend Edition As the Chinese proverb goes “a book is like a garden that you can put in your pocket.” However, you cannot … Continue reading

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Double Dragon Head: Looking Backward, Looking Forward

Photo MountainWarren states, Shanghai MuseumSome rights reserved Double headed dragon, looking backwardlooking forward Looking backward: 星期一 Another mass anti-IP infringement campaign with a fancy name, here.星期二 Oxford University professor about brandscape in China patient, but everything can go wrong, here. … Continue reading

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After 44 Years Chinese Lovers of Literature Can Legally Buy “One Hundred Years Of Solitude”

Photo Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara  Some rights reserved TGIF Zhang Lei wrote a nice article for the Global Times about Thinkingdomhouse, a publisher who achieved to get a copyright license for China from Nobel Prize for Literature laureate Gabriel … Continue reading

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China’s Supreme People’s Court Will Tell You How Safe Safe Harbours Are

Photo RnechesMain entrance Supreme People’s Court Beijing The writers versus Baidu case triggered the Supreme People’s Court to draft a judicial interpretation of online copyright, and can be expected this year. A refinement of the Regulation on Protection to Network Dissemination … Continue reading

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Pfizer Starts R&D in China After IPR in China Challenges

Photo Danny FriedmannPerilous hills, but nice view. Climb worth the risk? As one of the first U.S. companies pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has decided to start doing R&D in China. This way the company can probably take advantage of indigenous innovation … Continue reading

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The Lay-Out of the Magic Kingdom in Shanghai Wrapped Up in a Trade Secret

“One rat will invite his friend” In November 2009 the Chinese government approved that Shanghai would get its own Disneyland and even the first Disney resort in China. Hong Kong was not amused, because as of 2016 Hong Kong will … Continue reading

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Intellectual Property Bank in Taiwan and China (But Very Different)

Public sector The China Post reports that the Ministry of Economic Affairs is setting up an IP bank: “The intellectual property bank is scheduled to be set up in June under the supervision of Taiwan’s semi-official Industrial Technology Research Institute … Continue reading

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On Counterfeit liquor and wine

People’s Republic of China During the massive IP enforcement campaign “Bright Sword” police cracked down in Beijing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guizhou in 40 cases involving the production and selling of fake alcohol. China Daily wrote: “March 23 to 25, police … Continue reading

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Why Could Polo Ralph Lauren/Burberry Clone Get Trademark In Hong Kong?

The outdoor advertisement of Polo Santa Roberta no longer has theBurberry tartan pattern background “Buy one get one free” Is this what luxury goods manufacturers such as Polo Ralph Lauren and Burberry want to be associated with?  Here you can … Continue reading

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Mickey Mouse Went To the Ladies’ Market in Hong Kong Without Disney Knowing It

Unauthorised Use of Disney’s copyright  Smoothite versus Samsonite

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Emergent brandscape in China: “Sony was not built in a day”

David Barboza interviewed Karl Gerth who teaches modern Chinese history at Oxford University about his new book ‘As China Goes So Does The World’. Professor Gerth is optimistic about Chinese brands. His take is that China will get strong brands … Continue reading

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How bright is Bright Sword?

Is the Force with mass campaigns? Are mass campaigns of intellectual property enforcement mere temporary patchwork, leaving untouched the underlaying problems? Most mass campaigns are still announced with starting date and expiration date. The only thing trademark counterfeiters and copyright … Continue reading

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Sunday Specialty: SARFT Knows Watching Time-travelling Is Bad

Photo Danny Friedmann星期日 = Sunday: Time-travelling not allowed. Not even by taxi. The State Administration for Radio Film and TV (SARFT) came up with the Notice Concerning the Nationwide Television Drama Shooting Filing Announcement for March 2011. “In the recent … Continue reading

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Saturated Saturday: Tsingtao Beer China’s Well Known Trademark

Since September 20, 1991, Tsingtao Beer 青島啤酒 has been recognised as a well-known trademark in China. It was approved this status by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) during the first batch of China’s Well-known Trademarks. Wang Jun, of Deheng … Continue reading

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Peter K. Yu Kicks Off the UNH Franklin Pierce Center for IP Distinguished Speaker in IP Lecture Series

Mary Wong, the first director of the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce Center for IP invited Drake University professor Peter K. Yu to give the inaugural speech of the Franklin Pierce Center for IP Distinguished  Speaker in IP Lecture … Continue reading

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Sino-U.S. Investment Treaty: A Little BIT For You and Me

Photo “Shaking Hands” by Nicola Corboy (Some rights reserved) In May, 2011, the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue will be resumed in Washington. Daniel Michaeli, research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank and publisher, opines in the Huffington … Continue reading

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The Influence of China’s Trade deficit on IP Enforcement in China

Light at the end?Photo: Danny Friedmann Remember that in 2009, because of the financial crisis, the Supreme People’s Court urged the lower courts to conservatively grant injunctions, read here. Now too, there are economic circumstances that might not be conducive … Continue reading

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50 percent Nike 50 percent Li-Ning, 0 percent Creativity…What percentage confusion?

Photo: Danny FriedmannSeen today in hypermarket Carrefour, Futian, ShenzhenName of the brand: Fujian Jinjiang Hengren Shoes 

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What Came First? Fake Chicken or Fake Egg

In 2008 I wrote a column for a Dutch magazine in which I assert that even people who do not want to do business in China or have no interest in IP at all, should take an interest in it, … Continue reading

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Tim Smith’s Guest Blog: Taobao Online Infringement Case

星期二 = Tuesday Photo Danny Friedmann Taobao.com, the popular Chinese e-commerce platform, has appealed against a verdict handed down by a Shanghai court in late March that it should pay compensation of RMB 10,000 (around GBP 950) for its failure … Continue reading

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Patents in China: Quantity Obsessed Quality Challenged

Time for quality patentsPhoto: Danny Friedmann Now we are all following Ericsson sueing ZTE for patent infringement in Germany, UK and Italy, read here. Followed of course by ZTE trying to invalidate Ericsson’s patent at China’s Patent Re-examination Board, read here, because of … Continue reading

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Trends Counterfeit Trademarks/Infringed Patents From China: Smaller Scale, Bigger Risks

Two trends can be abstracted from the 2010 report of the Austrian Federal Finance Ministry to the National Council about the application of Council Regulation (EC) 1383/2003 of July, 22 2003, concerning customs action against goods suspected of infringing certain intellectual property … Continue reading

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Sue Where The Assets Are: Reflex Packaging is suing former client Lenovo for patent infringement in US

By Michiel Tjoe-Awie Reflex Packaging (Reflex) was supplying patented thermoformed cushions to pack Lenovo’s computers. In 2008 Lenovo asked Reflex to remove their name and patent number from the packages. Reflex refused to do so, only to discover later that … Continue reading

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Joint-venture with technology transfer no panacea for market access to China’s aviation industry

China’s 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) states that the general aviation industry’s development will bepromoted, reform the airspace management system as well as increase the efficiency of the allocation and utilization of airspace resources. Bright sky for China’s aviation industry. But what … Continue reading

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Writers versus Baidu: Does Baidu “Know” What It Is Doing?

When people outside the field of intellectual property rights strike a conversation with you about something related to IP you know it has caught the public imagination. 50 Chinese writers united in the ‘Publishing World Anti-Baidu Infringement Coalition’ have written an open … Continue reading

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Unoriginal trademarks unpopular in Quanzhou. Good news or wishful thinking?

Hao Nan of China Daily wrote about the trade at the Quanzhou Trademark Trade Center in Fujian that almost dried up. Read here. Why did not Adam Smith’s invisible hand work? Was the invisible hand here invisible, to quote Joseph Stiglitz, because … Continue reading

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IP Dragon Checks International Clothes Market in Beijing: “Waterbedding” Effect of Trademark Enforcement

Building of the International Clothes Market  While all eyes are fixed on Silk Market in Beijing, IP Dragon focuses its attention to the International Clothes Market in Beijing to check whether counterfeit apparel and bags were on sale. Let’s first take … Continue reading

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IP Dragon Regains Blog from IP Komodo Dragon

Photo by Andrew Wilkinson (some rights are reserved) After one month in which IP Dragon went to Beijing and Hong Kong to do research to the IP scene in these respective cities, he took the Dragon Temple Long Hua line 龙华线 back home … Continue reading

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