HK-mainland copyright seminar

A two-day Hong Kong and mainland copyright protection and enforcement seminar was held recently with the nearly 100 participants including government officials and copyright and law experts from both regions.

Director of Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department Richard Yuen said the seminar further enhanced mutual understanding on copyright laws, strengthened copyright protection awareness and intensified the battle against piracy in Hong Kong and on the mainland.

Yuen said Hong Kong Customs has continued enforcement efforts to crack down on counterfeits. In the past three years, about 10,000 infringement cases were investigated each year, 93 percent of which involved piracy.

The seminar was jointly held by China Copyright Association, Hong Kong Customs and the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Department.Customs shine

China's total import and export volume had an average annual increase of 26.4 percent in the last five years, ranking the nation in the top-three worldwide. Along with the growth intellectual property protection by Customs in China has received extensive recognition, according to the National Conference of Customs Directors held recently in Beijing.

In the past five years, 7,002 intellectual property infringement cases in imports and exports were investigated that together had a value of 680 million yuan.

March deadline for aircraft firm

China has set a March deadline to establish its first jumbo passenger aircraft company as it moves to join the countries technically capable of manufacturing large jets.

Huang Qiang, secretary general of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense said a director and a chief engineer of research would be appointed by that time to ensure the work goes as planned.

Shanghai Securities News reports the new company will only be responsible for the design and assembly of jumbo aircraft, while the production of components and parts would be left to other aviation enterprises.

Currently, only the United States, Russia, France, Germany, Britain and Spain have the capability to build jumbo aircraft, with Boeing and Airbus taking the lion's share of sales in the international market.

Power generating patents

China's largest power producer Huaneng said it developed 17 patents for its ultra-supercritical generation plant technology. The company has built such power plants with capacities of both1,000 mW and 600 mW. Its Yuhuan plant in East China's Zhejiang province is now the largest power plant to use the latest generation of such technology.

South Beauty 'well known'

South Beauty Group, an upscale Chinese restaurant chain, last week announced that both its Chinese name Qiaojiangnan and English name South Beauty were certified as well-known trademarks by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.

The restaurant chain, purveyor of contemporary Sichuan cuisine, is preparing for listing in 2009, says Zhang Lan, chairwoman of South Beauty. But she declines to tell the destination for the listing.

South Beauty plans to open about 30 outlets around China in 2008. Its first overseas restaurant will be opened in Tokyo in this spring.

(China Daily 01/21/2008 page9)

2013-07-17