Government

1. China micro-film copyright industry alliance established in Beijing

On September 3rd 2014, the preparatory meeting of China Micro-film (Network Drama) Copyright Industry Alliance was held in Beijing. The meeting was co-launched by China Film Copyright Association (Collective), the only copyright collective management organization in China's film and television industry, and Beijing Central Network Media Co. Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Central Pictures Corporation, and organized by Beijing Music Video Network Technology Co. Ltd. The alliance aims to take good advantages of the force of alliance, study the development rules of Internet movies, improve the system of copyright authentication and protection, build the interactive platform of content-making and transmission channels, redeploy and integrate the industry resources in related areas, speed up the formation of industry chains, promote the healthy development of the industry, strengthen the communication and cooperation with overseas copyright industry associations, and introduce the excellent micro-films (network dramas) into abroad.

Source: China IP Magazine

2. International copyright forum: a galaxy of talents and great minds

From September 15th to 17th, the International Copyright Forum, an international copyright gathering co-organized by WIPO and National Copyright Administration of the People's Republic of China (NCAC) was successfully conducted. The forum attracted over 600 senior officials, experts and talents from copyright administration departments, related international associations, well-know enterprises and research institutes in more than a hundred countries, as well as officials of copyright administration and administration of press, publication, radio, film and television in nearly 30 provinces and municipalities, and representatives from almost 200 major organizations in China, such as some famous associations, prominent enterprises, and cultural and creative industry clusters. This forum served as an important supporting event to the 5th China International expo, which was held from September 17th to 19th in Chengdu jointly by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of the People’s Republic of China, the NCAC and the Sichuan Provincial People’s Government.

Source: China IP Magazine

3. 2594 copyrights exported at the 21st Beijing International Book Fair, outnumbered importation

On August 31st, the 21st Beijing International Book Fair was concluded in Beijing. According to preliminary statistics, 4346 copyright agreements have been accomplished in the fair, an increase of 18.5% over 2013. Among these, 1752 copyrights were imported, a year-on-year increase of 11.1%, and 2594 copyrights were exported, up by 24% within the same period. The ratio of copyright importation to exportation is 1: 1.48. Overall, the exportation amount of book copyright in China increased rapidly and far exceeded the amount of importation.

Source: China IP Magazine

4. China’s international patent applications jump

China received 11,243 international patent applications through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in the first half of 2014, an increase of 20.5%, SIPO said recently. About 91.5% of the total patent applications came from Chinese companies and individuals with 10,283 filings. Information technology giant companies, such as telecommunication device and solution providers Huawei and ZTE, and semiconductor supplier BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd., were most active in filing patent applications. More than half of international patent applications came from southern China’s Guangdong Province in the January-June period. The U.S. and Japan contributed the top number of foreign international patent applications in China, with 482 and 94 filings respectively.

Source: Xinhua

5. China to set up special IPR courts

China will set up special courts for IPR cases in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the top legislature has decided. The courts will focus largely on civil and administrative lawsuits regarding patents, new plant varieties, integrated circuit layout designs and technological knowledge. The IPR courts will also handle appellate cases regarding other IPR-related matters, such as copyright and trademark disputes, in these three cities. Appeals against the verdicts of the IPR courts will be heard in local higher people's courts. Presidents, vice presidents and chief judges of these courts will be appointed by local legislatures. In a report, Zhou Qiang, president of the Supreme People’s Court, said procedural rules, evidence rules and litigation preservation measures will be improved to provide better IPR protection.

Source: Xinhua

6. People.cn and i ThinkTank jointly released "Chinese Patent Rankings"

On September 9th, People.cn and i ThinkTank of China's Intellectual Property Publishing House officially launched "Chinese Patent Rankings." The rankings are classified on the areas, enterprises, scientific research institutions, colleges and universities, and nature person, and are updated monthly. According to the patent grants in the first eight months in 2014, for enterprises, Huawei won the first place for five months, ZTE for two months, and Qualcomm (China) entered into the top ten for seven months. For the colleges and universities, Zhejiang University won the first place for five months, the patent grants of Southeast University, Shanghai Jiaotong University etc. are growing. For scientific research institutions, the relevant institutions of Chinese Academy of Sciences have absolute advantages with the invention patents as the main part. The patent grants from natural person are in high production, with the design patents as the main part.

Source: China IP Magazine

7. SIPO established 19 PPH pilot programs with IP offices globally

According to a representative from Patent Examination Administration Department of Patent Office under SIPO, SIPO has established PPH pilot programs with 18 countries in total. "It's worth mentioning that SIPO, EPO, JPO, KIPO and USPTO launched t h e three-year-long IP5 PPH pilot program on January 2014. Counting this IP5 PPH program in, SIPO has established 19 PPH pilot programs with overseas IP offices, which are beneficial to enterprises filing PPH applications," according to the representative. Latest numbers from SIPO showed that as of the end of 2013, Chinese applicants have filed 825 PPH applications via PPH pilot programs, of which 197 are regular PPH applications, 628 are PCTPPH applications.

Source: China IP News

8. Premier Li Keqiang addressed at Summer Davos Forum: to make serious IP infringements pay insufferable prices

From September 10th to 12th, the 2014 Summer Davos Forum and the 8th Annual Meeting of the New Champions was held in Tianjin, China. Premier Li Keqiang attended the opening ceremony and delivered the opening remarks. In the speech, Premier Li addressed that, "Protecting IP rights is in fact protecting the kindling of innovation and creativity and the rights and interests of innovators. We will penalize serious IPR infringements to the fullest extent in accordance with the laws, including imposing heavy fines to make law breakers pay insufferable prices, so as to propel innovation."

Source: China IP Magazine

9. Anti-monopoly of NDRC: accumulatively giving tickets of 2.7 billion yuan

Since 2013 National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) imposed a penalty of 1.2345 billion yuan on the monopoly behavior of twelve famous Japanese automobile enterprises including the Sumimoto Company. According to part of the statistics, the total amount of fine from the anti-monopoly investigation since 2013 has been up to 2.7 billion yuan, covering LCD panel, communication, auto, milk powder, gold, white wine and many other industries within dozens of domestic and foreign enterprises. To be more concrete, the fine of 150.56 million yuan is for DENSO CORPORATION, 241.08 million yuan for Yazaki, 34.56 million yuan for Furukawa Electric, 290.4 million yuan for Sumimoto Company, 29.76 million yuan for Aisan, 44.88 million yuan for Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, 40.72 million yuan for MITSUBA SANKOWA, 174.92 million yuan for NSK, and 119.16 million yuan for NTN.

Source: China IP Magazine

10. Boosting patent agency standards

SIPO recently announced that it plans to set patent agency standards for services, work quality and management, which will help stimulate the market and promote healthy growth in the sector. The Office added that it would also ease access to the industry and attract more professionals to meet growing demand.

Source: China Daily

11. The total amount of agricultural registered trademarks in China up to 1.25 million

In 2014 International Symposium on B r and Agriculture Development, government officers, experts and entrepreneurs from 17 countries and areas conducted in-depth discussions on issues such as development tend of global brand agriculture, development methods of China’s brands agriculture and etc. The statistics showed that the total amount of agricultural registered trademarks in China was 0.6 million at the end of 2008, however, up to end of 2013, the amount was up to 1.25 million, doubled in five years.

Source: China IP Magazine

12. Qingdao customs establishing IP client management mode

Recently, Qingdao Customs and Cofco-Shandong Vermicelli & Beans Imp Exp Co., Ltd signed an agreement on the Opinions on Strengthening the Customs Cooperation of Intellectual Property Rights Protection. The two sides decided to establish a long-term mechanism of communication and collaboration, stabilize cooperation partnership, intensify information connection and build a two-way training mechanism. It is another step-forward for Qingdao Customs to establish the IP client management mode of famous brands.

Source: China IP Magazine

13. Online copyright infringement cases in the second round of "Sword Net Action 2014" released

On September 2nd, the National Copyright Administration of PRC circulated a notice on ten cases of online copyright infringement, calling on the obligee and the public to report relevant cases continually. These 10 cases covered different types such as infringing the copyright of online videos, literature works and online games, and producing and selling pirated products online.

Source: China IP Magazine

14. The New Media Copyright Alliance established in Beijing

On August 28th, over a hundred of media companies and organizations gathered in Beijing, initiating the New Media Copyright Alliance and holding the establishing ceremony and the first session of the general assembly. The New Media Copyright Alliance is a nonprofit coordinating organization under the guidance of the Copyright Society of China, and co-founded by nine national media, including People's Daily Online, China.org.cn, CRI Online, China Network Television, China Youth International, China Economic Net, Taiwan.com, China National Radio and China News. Besides, during the ceremony, a number of experts in the field of IPRs and the Internet held a roundtable discussion on issues such as the current copyright protection for media in China, the difficulties of copyright protection in the new media era, win-win strategies for the copyright cooperation in the Internet era, and how will the development of media technology promote the copyright protection for media.

Source: China IP Magazine

15. Easy-IP : One-stop portal

During an ongoing innovation competition for start-ups, hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology, an IP service portal, Easy-IP, provided contestants with one-stop IP services to help maximize their innovation value. The annual competition, which started in June, drew more than 8,700 companies and 3,700 teams nationwide from sectors including IT, biomedicines, new materials, renewable energy and mobile Internet.

Source: China IP Magazine

Enterprises

1. Tencent lost “QQ” trademark battle to Chery Automobile

The long-standing trademark dispute between Tencent Holdings Limited (Tencent) and Chery Automobile (Chery) attracted st rong publ i c attention, as the former enterprise is a leading Chinese investment holding company which is famous for its product QQ instant messenger, and the latter one is a state-owned automobile manufacturing corporation with the QQ city car considered to be its best-known model. Back in 2013 when Chery just applied for “QQ” trademark registration, Tencent had raised objections. Later, in order to protect itself, Tencent applied the “QQ” trademark for automobiles and the application was approved in 2008. However, this trademark was revoked in 2013 by the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the State Administration for Industry & Commerce of the People’s Republic of China (the Board) due to the objection raised by Chery. Tencent then filed a lawsuit against the Board. On September 14th 2014, Beijing Higher People’s Court made the final instance verdict, supporting the Board’s revocation. It implies that Tencent lost this trademark battle which lasts 11 years at the moment.

Source: China IP Magazine

2. Three China’s cement enterprises severely fined because of price monopoly

According to the National Development and Reform Commission on September 9th, because of the price monopoly, three Chinese enterprises, the Cement Sales Co. Ltd. of Jilin Yatai Group, North Cement Co. Ltd. and Jidong Cement (Jilin) Co. Ltd., were severely fined respectively 60.04 million yuan, 40.97 million yuan and 13.38 million yuan, totally 114 million yuan. It is another severe fine for price monopoly after the 12 Japanese auto parts enterprises and 23 insurances companies in Zhejiang Province.

Source: China IP Magazine

3. Honda files a trademark lawsuit

Recently, Honda Motor Company filed an administrative proceeding against a natural person surnamed Fu (the right holder of No.6956181 HondaJet and its figure), alleging that his trademark application of HondaJet and its figure has infringed Honda’s trademark right. Within the legal time limit, Honda Motor filed an application to the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB) for revoking the trademark in dispute. Then TRAB maintained the registration of the disputed trademark. The Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court is handling this case.

Source: China IP News

4. FACEBOOK failed to apply the trademark "臉譜" in China

FACEBOOK, the famous online social networking platform and a leading photo sharing site, attracts millions of users with its uniqueness. Recently, FACEBOOK applied a Chinese trademark “臉譜” intending to use it on entertainment and other related services. However, the application was dismissed by the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the State Administration for Industry & Commerce of the People’s Republic of China (the Board), on the reason that the trademark on application is similar with another trademark using on an identical or similar goods. Afterwards, Facebook Inc. filed an administrative lawsuit at Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court against the Board. Currently, the court made the first instance verdict to sustain the original judgment by the Board.

Source: China IP Magazine

5. Coca Cola won the "Ice Dew" trademark administrative lawsuit

The mineral drinking water “Ice Dew” (trademark) produced by the Coca-Cola Company (Coca- Cola) was put into the market in 2010. However, a man surnamed Zhang in Guangdong province applied the trademark “Ice Dew” for canned fruit, canned mushrooms and milk drinks, which resulted in the objection from Coca-Cola. The trademark registration was approved by Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB) of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, then Coca-Cola issued the administrative lawsuit to the court. Recently, Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court made the judgment for the first instance, revoking the review TRAB’s decision of questioned trademark registration.

Source: China IP News

6. I am not Pan Jinlian written by Liu Zhengyu hit the record of copyright output

I am not Pan Jinlian written by Liu Zhengyu attracted great public attention in the Third International Symposium of Sinologist Literary Translation. It is understood that I am not Pan Jinlian has been translated into 11 languages, that is, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Dutch, Russian, Korean, Arabic, and Vietnamese; the negotiations of the other seven languages are in the process, and the sides will reach the agreements soon. The prepaid amount of the book in Italian is up to 80,000 euros, hitting a new record in prepayment of Chinese literature book sales.

Source: China IP Magazine

7. The uprising royalty of the re-broadcasting right of Premier League causing "shuffle"

As the royalty of re-broadcasting right of Premier League rose sharply, China’s four major websites (Sina, Netease, Sohu and Tencent) who had used to broadcast the Premier League for free decided to quit the rebroadcasting right. In the mid-August, video websites PPTV and LeTV respectively signed the contracts on the re-broadcasting right with the copyright holder of Premier League in tens of millions of dollars. It also introduced a mix payment model of four games for free plus six games to pay in each round.

Source: China IP Magazine

8. NVIDIA takes Samsung and Qualcomm to court over patent infringements

NVIDIA, a chip manufacture in Taiwan has announced that the company is taking both Samsung and Qualcomm to court for infringing on seven patents covering computer graphics. The popular GPU manufacturer is asking the International Trade Commission and U.S. district court in Delaware to enforce product bans to the U.S. and request compensation. This move is a serious push in NVIDIA licensing its patents and technology.

Source: androidcentral.com

9. Astro Boy wins copyright suit in China

In early 2013, Tezuca Co. filed a lawsuit against Astro Boy Sports Company (AB Sports) to Beijing Second Intermediate People’s Court, asking for the defendant to cease the infringement immediately. Then the Court held that AB Sports infringed Tezuca Co.’s rights of reproduction, distribution, communication through information network and remuneration, by using Astro Boy’s image on its production and promotion without permission, and made a judgment in favor of Tezuca Co. AB Sports appealed to Beijing Higher People’s Court. Recently, Beijing Higher People’s Court made a final judgment to reject the appeal from AB Sports. The Court affirmed the judgment that AB Sports should cease the infringement immediately and pay Tezuca Co. 210,000 yuan for economic losses and reasonable expenses.

Source: China IP News

10. The royalty payment issue of Jin Yong works settled

Louis Cha, better known by his pen name Jin Yong, is famous for his martial arts and chivalry fictions in Chinese speaking areas. Recently, authorized by the writer, Guangzhou Langsheng Co.,Ltd (Langsheng), one of the most influential martial arts fictions operator in China, exclusively launched the Chinese audio books Portfolio of Jin Yong worldwide. With the participation of more than 30 professionals, the audio books were recorded over six months and estimated to be longer than 1,500 episodes with over 650 hours in total. In the promoting period, listening per episode will be charged for 0.5 yuan, and it will cost around 750 yuan for the whole portfolio. Unlike the copyright chaos in relevant fields before, the huge royalty paid by Langsheng this time indicated that the fierce competition in the audio book market formally began.

Source: China IP Magazine

11. China’s first English WeChat account officially launched

Presented by China IP magazine, China's first English WeChat account is officially launched. In order to provide more profess-ional, useful and helpful IP information to our English readers, China IP comes to the WeChat Platform. It is also the first English IP subscription account in China. With massive materials of the magazine we already have, plus the most updated IP trends analysis, we believe that we can provide the most comprehensive information of China’s IP industry. We will strive to work harder and more than happy to hear your voice as well!

WeChat Account: CIPMEN

Source: China IP Magazine

12. ZTE won four straight cases against "337 investigation"

United States International Trade Commission (ITC) on August 15th conducted the final verdict on the patent infringement case of InterDigital (IDC) suing Zhongxing Telecommunication Equipment Corporation (ZTE), believing that ZTE did neither violate the “Section 337” nor infringe the patent right of IDC. Until now, ZTE had won the final victory in all the “337 Investigation” launched by IDC against several Chinese companies including ZTE, which makes ZTE become the only Chinese enterprise winning the four straight cases from “Section 337” at present.

Source: China IP Magazine

13. Alibaba defeated in the first instance against Economic Information Daily

At the end of August, the case of infringing the information network transmission right of works between Economic Information Daily and the operator of Yahoo China as well as Beijing Alibaba Information Technology Co., Ltd. (Alibaba Company) had been decided in Beijing Chaoyang District People’s Court. The court believed that Alibaba Company constituted infringement and should pay 5000 yuan to Economic Information Daily for economic loss.

Source: China IP Magazine

14. Lost in Thailand defeated with 5 million yuan compensation

Directed by the famous Chinese actor and director Xu Zheng, and produced by one of the most influential media and entertainment group, Enlight Media Group (Enlight), the Chinese comedy film Lost in Thailand became a blockbuster since it was first released in December 2012, and has grossed more than 200 million US dollars at the Chinese box-office to date. However, in March 2013, Wuhan Huaqi Movies & TV Production (Huaqi), the producer of Lost on Journey (a Chinese comedy film released in 2010), brought a lawsuit to the court, suing the producers and the director of Lost in Tailand for unfair competition and infringement. Recently, the case has updated progress. Enlight announced that it has received the Civil Judgment from the Beijing Higher People’s Court, requiring Enlight and its wholly owned subsidiary Beijing Enlight Pictures Co., Ltd stop the unfair competition behavior and compensate the economic loss of 5 million yuan to Huaqi. Enlight indicated that it would continue to appeal later.

Source: China IP Magazine

Global News

1 UK

Phillip Morris prepared to sue UK over plain cigarette packaging

Tobacco giant Phillip Morris has said it is prepared to sue the UK government should it implement a law mandating plain packaging for cigarettes. The law proposes that cigarettes be sold with graphic health warnings and no branding. The law aims to improve public health by discouraging people from smoking. The UK government said in April it wanted to bring in plain packaging after a review found it could cut down the incidence of children taking up smoking. The Marlboro-maker said it was prepared to “seek fair compensation” through the courts should its branding be affected. Now Philip Morris is in the process of suing the Australian government over plain cigarette package rules.

Source: BBC News

2 U.S.

USPTO and KIPO announce KIPO's full expansion of the cooperative patent classification system

The agreement, signed by the heads of USPTO and KIPO during a bilateral meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, is designed to improve the patent granting process through streamlined access to patent documentation. Through this cooperation, KIPO will greatly expand the number of documents included in the Cooperative Patent Classification system by fully classifying its patent applications and utility models.

Source: USPTO

3 Japan

Companies to gain sole ownership of patents for employees’ inventions in Japan

The Japanese government scrapped a reward-system plan for creative workers and will revise the Patent Law to give companies unconditional patent ownership of products invented by their employees on the job, which will rise oppositions from emlpoyers.

Source: Asahi Shimbun

4 EU

CJEU: libraries may digitize books without permission, EU Top Court rules

European libraries may digitize books and make them available at electronic reading points without first gaining consent of the copyright holder, the highest European Union court ruled on September 11th. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled in a case in which the Technical University of Darmtadt digitized a book published by German publishing house Eugen Ulmer in order to make it available at its electronic reading posts, but refused to license the publisher’s electronic textbooks. Under the EU Copyright Directive, authors have the exclusive right to authorize or prohibit the reproduction and communication of their works, the CJEU said. However, the directive also allows for exceptions or limitations to that right. Source: China IP News

5 Irish

New Irish Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal Act 2014 was signed into law by President Higgins. It provides for the establishment of the Court of Appeal to sit between the High Court and the Supreme Court. The appellate jurisdictions of the Supreme Court, the Court of Criminal Appeal and the Courts- Martial Appeal Court are to be vested in the new Court of Appeal.

Source: William Fry News