Rampant piracy 'damaging'

Pirates and bootleggers in China produce 120 million counterfeit audio and video products and 500 million unauthorized books a year, said an official with the General Administration of Press and Publication.

The rampant piracy of audio and video products and books has seriously affected China's international reputation and future investment prospects, said Liu Binjie, deputy-director of the administration, during a movie festival organized by college students in Beijing.

"The audio and video product market alone is suffering annual losses of billions of yuan, while book piracy has left publishers and distributors with legal copyrights in a very unfavorable position," Liu says.

Liu adds though China's on-going crackdown on piracy is appreciated by international copyright holders, the current situation is still far from satisfactory.

IP professionals meet in Beijing

Twenty-five intellectual property professionals from 19 Asian countries gathered in Beijing from March 20 to 24 to attend the 2nd Asian Regional Intellectual Property Seminar, held by China's State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO).

Participants at the seminar discussed and exchanged views on several current topics in the IP field during the five-day seminar, such as IP management and transfer, patent information dissemination and how to improve competitive capability of enterprises by using IP.

Lin Binghui, SIPO vice-commissioner, told the seminar that Asian countries should increase exchanges in the IP field to enhance mutual understanding and team with one another to protect IP rights in the Asia region.

Portal offers legal music online

China's portal website Sina.com will team up with five leading international record companies to provide copyrighted music online.

The music library will generate revenues from advertising and by providing wireless value-added services such as musical ring tones. Profits will be shared by Sina and the record companies, which include EMI, SONYBMG, Universal and Warner Music, the company says.

Analysts believe all parties involved will benefit from the move as the website will consolidate its revenues while the record companies will be able to some extent slow the decline in profits caused by widespread pirating.

"The website will launch a pay-per-download service in the future if everything goes well," said Cao Guowei, chief executive officer of Sina.

Analysts predict the market share of digital music in China's music industry will jump five-fold from last year to reach $14.9 billion by 2010, accounting for 40 percent of the overall industry.

Network IP rights needed

The Internet has a great impact on network-related IP rights, and that effect is heightened with the appearance of peer-to-peer sharing, blogs and temporary copying that means network copyright protection faces new challenges, said Zhang Qiong, deputy-director of the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council.

Speaking at the Symposium on Network and Criminal Law Protection of Intellectual Property Rights held on March 17 in Shenzhen, Zhang said building an innovation-oriented nation in 2020, China will further tighten intellectual property rights protection and enhance the contribution of intellectual property so it contributes to some 70 percent of economic and social development.

Zhang said the priority in intellectual property is copyright protection needed due to Internet dissemination of works, so the Chinese government has released the Ordinance on the Protection of the Right to Network Dissemination of Information.

Store infringes on Levis twice

Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court has ruled that a Beijing-based garment company has to pay compensation of 500,000 yuan to US-based Levi Strauss & Co for trademark infringement.

In June 2005, responding to an informant's lead, administration members for industry and commerce from Chaoyang and Haidian districts in Beijing seized more than 100 counterfeit pairs of Levis at the defendant's store and imposed sanctions.

However, in March 2006, Levis again purchased counterfeit from the same shop. Levis claimed that the act of the Beijing garment company had infringed upon its exclusive trademark right and caused significant injury to its economic interests and requested the court to order the defendant to cease selling infringing products immediately and pay damages of 500,000 yuan. The defendant argued that it had acquired the products from legitimate channels and should not be liable for damage.

Writer files lawsuit on Web work

A writer surnamed Fu has brought Chinese Web portal Sohu.com to a court in Shanghai, accusing the defendant of using his short messages without paying him.

Fu is asking for 3 million yuan in compensation.

Fu said that that he signed a one-year agreement with Sohu.com on January 31, 2005 and authorized Sohu.com to use 200 of his short messages on its website for that year. He claims Sohu.com continued to use them after the agreement expired on January 30, 2006 without his approval and without paying him.

Fu said that Sohu.com had infringed on his copyrights and asked it to stop the infringement, make an apology and compensate him for his losses.

Li Jingchuan, a lawyer for Sohu.com, said that Fu signed with Sohu.com in the name of his company, but now he has personally lodged the lawsuit, so has no legal basis to bring the case to court.

(China Daily 03/26/2007 page9)