Patent technology

SIPO recently held a conference and listened to comments on administrative measures for patents and patent licensing contracts.

Regulations for registration of patent contacts that were issued in 1996 can no longer meet the demands of current development, the conference heard.

Two new drafts further clarify the rights and obligations of contract parties and the functions of local intellectual property agencies. Participants also suggested further clarification on the legal impacts of the two measures on current Patent Law.

Defense patents

The Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense recently issued a guideline to encourage private enterprises to participate in the defense industry. Technological results from private enterprises in research and production of military products can be used to apply to national defense patent agencies, the guideline said.

Since 2002, the number of national defense patents had grown by 36 percent on average annually and comprise about 10 percent of the national total.

The guideline specifies five aspects for private participation in the national defense industry - registration, access to information, qualification, scope of participation and approval.

Minority intellectual property

Patents for Muslim food, Hui clothing, Hui art, carpets and other Muslim designs will get financial aid from the Yinchuan municipal government in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

The city, trying to better protect minority intellectual property, will pay patent application and registration fees.

Yinchuan has produced a number of results from the effort, including dresses, Hui art performances, other types of clothes, tea sets, music, carpets and tapestries.

Tea protection

A total of 58 kinds of tea products have received protection in China, and Pu'er Tea from Yunnan is the latest "geographical indication product", says Pu Changcheng, deputy director general of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

"In China, tea is a combination of natural elements and traditional culture, so geographical indication protection will standardize the procedure of planting, production and processing of tea, guaranteeing quality and promoting exports," Pu says.

Counterfeit jewelry

On July 30, a parcel containing 907 pieces of fake jewelry carrying the brand name Tiffany & Co was seized after it was labeled handicrafts and addressed to New York.

In the past five months Wenzhou customs officials have seized more than 6,000 pieces of counterfeit jewelry carrying the same brand name.

The jewelry, confirmed as counterfeit by the Beijing Zhucheng Trademark Agency, was seized in three separate incidents.

Judging by the handwriting on the parcels, the three packages were all sent by the same person, says Jin Li, a customs officer.

Bean curd dispute

On August 8, Chinese bean curd brand Wangzhihe won an initial victory in a trademark infringement and unfair competition suit with OKAI Co and vowed to "pursue the lawsuit with the German company to the end".

Wangzhihe, founded in 1678, registered its brand in 2005. But when the company wanted to expand and register its brand in Germany a year later they found that OKAI Co had already filed for the name, so it brought a lawsuit against the company last January in Munich.

Fake sports shoes

Fuzhou Mawei Customs has recently seized 17,484 pairs of fake sports shoes worth nearly 9 million yuan.

The sports shoes infringed on a number of prestigious brands, including Nike and Adidas, and were being prepared for shipment to the United Kingdom.

Customs searched more than 1,000 clearance forms and investigated for two weeks before uncovering the goods.

(China Daily 08/20/2007 page9)