Sewing up cooperation

To strengthen ties between China and Japan in IPR work in sewing machines, working groups from industry associations held a colloquium in Shanghai recently.

"Both China and Japan are major contributors to the development of the world's sewing machine industry, and all countries around the world should bear the responsibilities in PR protection," said He Ye, standing vice-chairman of China Sewing Machinery Association.

An official from Japan's association said the two sides deepened their understanding and boosted industrial development through a range of efforts including a large joint convention for the industry.

Anti-depressant TCM deal

Shanghai Innovative Research Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Fennopharma Corp of Finland recently agreed to cooperate in overseas clinical research and gauging the market potential of a new anti-depression drug called S111 that is derived from traditional Chinese medicine.

The center submitted an application for clinical tests of the medicine in early 2006 to the State Food and Drug Administration. It has also filed an application for an international patent on the drug.

Yahoo! loses copyright suit

The Beijing Higher People's Court upheld a lower court ruling that ordered Yahoo! China to pay damages to 11 major record companies for facilitating free music downloads.

Yahoo! China appealed to the Beijing Higher People's Court after losing the lawsuit at the Beijing No 2 Intermediary People's Court in April.

The Beijing No 2 Intermediary Court ordered Yahoo! China to pay 210,000 yuan in damages to the companies, which include EMI, Warner Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group. It also ordered the Web portal to remove links that enable Internet users to download songs from other sites.

The record companies began court proceedings in early January, saying that the music had been played or downloaded without their permission and asked for 5.5 million yuan in damages.

Yahoo! China insisted that it only provides links in its music search results and should not be held responsible for the content of third-party websites.

Business 'incubators'

China has 548 "incubators" for start-up companies, the second most in the world after the United States, statistics from the Ministry of Science and Technology indicated.

The so-called incubators have helped 19,896 hi-tech companies, of which 569 have annual revenue of more than 100 million yuan. In addition, 53 were listed on either domestic or overseas stock exchanges.

China originally borrowed the idea of incubators from the United States. They are designed to create a convenient and efficient environment for start-up companies, as well as in providing financing, tax and land incentives.

The country's first incubator project started in 1987 in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province.

As part of the effort, the government and sate-funded policy banks are financing smaller venture capital funds, primarily for hi-tech research and development.

(China Daily 12/29/2007 page9)

2013-07-17