Professional help for patents

The State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) recently released two circulars requiring local governments and enterprises to build a patent exchange mechanism to help companies in their patent work.

SIPO said local governments should choose pilot companies with good track records in developing new technologies and filing patents and send patent professionals, including officials from the local intellectual property offices, patent auditors, patent agents and patent lawyers, to provide assistance.

The professionals are also expected to help companies formulate their corporate intellectual property (IP) strategies and acquire feedback and advice about their difficulties in national IP work.

Companies can apply for the right to establish exchange centers and receive professional assistance for a two-year period.

China-Singapore seminar

SIPO and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore will hold a China-Singapore Intellectual Property Institution Seminar in Beijing on May 28 and 29 to promote exchanges between the two counties in IP and broaden the vision of Chinese IP pilot companies.

The seminar will discuss the latest developments of China's IP work, as well as IP systems in Singapore and other Southeast Asian nations, Singapore's corporate IP strategy, the use of IP information and digital copyright protection.

Park: A cat, not Mickey Mouse

Wang Yefei, deputy director of IP Administration of Beijing, said that his administration had conducted on-site investigation at Shijingshan Amusement Park following media reports that the park used cartoon characters in some games without authorization from Disney.

Wang said the park had taken measures to verify the reports and make changes and called for the park and Disney to strengthen communication.

Some Japanese media said earlier this month that Shijingshan Amusement Park used famous cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse in some games in a parade on May 1, the International Labor Day.

The park responded to the Japanese reports on May 9, saying it was hard to verify if the video footage was actually all filmed in the park and that the claimed Mickey Mouse figure was actually a cat mascot of the park, whose image was based on four real cats selected in a national contest.

Steel maker plans 200 patents

Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corp, the fifth largest steelmaker in China, aims to file 200 patents this year, as the company is paying increasing attention to intellectual properties.

In 2005, the company only filed 34 patents, but in 2006, the number increased to 105. In the first quarter alone, 52 patents were filed.

Last year, the steelmaker formed an intellectual property administration department to encourage and support its employee enthusiasm for innovation, and held on-site seminars with engineers and workers to brief them about IP regulations.

Damaged domestic brands

Helping domestic companies protect their intellectual property rights has become a key task of Shanghai Customs, as it has investigated 17 counterfeit cases in the past year.

Famous domestic brands like Diamond electric fans and Tigerhead batteries, were damaged by the counterfeits, which were valued at 2.6 million yuan.

Customs said infringement cases on domestic companies rose by 92.6 percent in 2006.

Lenovo contract with Microsoft

Lenovo Group, the world's third-largest computer maker, signed a contract with Microsoft on May 10 to purchase software and services worth $1.3 billion in its new fiscal year starting on April 1. The software will be used on Lenovo's computers sold in both China and overseas markets.

It is the second time that the two companies signed similar contracts. Last April, they also signed a contract worth $1.2 billion. At that time, three other major Chinese computer makers, Founder PC, Tsinghua Tonghua and TCL, also signed contracts, bringing around $1 billion to Microsoft.

The huge contracts from Chinese computer makers have boosted Microsoft's business in China, as the world's largest software firm said 2006 was a year of progress in China.

80,000 yuan fine for one pen

Wuxi Intermediate People's Court recently ruled that a local department store must pay 80,000 yuan to the US pen maker Parker for selling one fake Parker pen.

Shanghai Parker's agent and notarization officials bought a "Parker" pen at a store in Wuxi in East China's Jiangsu Province on May 29, 2006 that was found be a fake.

Although the store presented genuine purchase contracts from a Beijing company and a delivery firm's documents on Parker pens, the court believed those documents were not convincing evidence of the legal source of the involved pen, so it ruled the store must pay 80,000 yuan and stop infringement on Parker's trademark.

Caterpillar filters case

US construction machinery giant Caterpillar won a case in a court in Shanghai on April 23 on the abuse of its trademark by a Chinese firm and received 30,000 yuan in compensation.

Shanghai Customs found 100 cartons of filters on April 8, 2005 bound for Syria with marks of "For Caterpillar" and Caterpillar's C trademark, that were manufactured by Changsheng Filter Co in Wenzhou of East China's Zhejiang Province. The goods were estimated to be worth $4,166.

Caterpillar then sued the firm and demanded 500,000 yuan in compensation.

The court ruled the Chinese firm infringed Caterpillar's trademarks, but since those goods were not actually sold and there was no real business transaction in the process, Caterpillar's demand for 500,000 yuan was not supported.

(China Daily 05/21/2007 page9)
 

2013-07-17