Instrument patents soar

China's musical instrument patents reached 498 last year, up a record 74.73 percent, compared with a growth rate of 9.61 percent in 2006 and 30 percent in 2005, statistics from China Patent Database indicate.

Ninety-seven percent were invention patents, 188 practical patents and 213 were exterior design patents. Percussion patents recorded the highest increase at 12 times higher than 2006.

Of new patents, 354 were from the mainland, accounting for 71.08 percent, up by 65.42 percent year-on-year. A broader range of countries and regions, including the United States, Germany, Japan and China's Taiwan province, have applied for patents on the mainland market, an increase of 3.31 percent last year.

Counterfeit cigarettes seized

A total of 9.28 billion counterfeit cigarettes were seized nationwide last year, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) announced recently.

Law enforcement agencies raided 3,876 counterfeit cigarette warehouses and rounded up 7,026 people in connection with the false brands, prosecuting 3,492 people, said STMA head Jiang Chengkang.

He added that law enforcement agencies also solved 5,505 cases, each of which involved more than 50,000 yuan. Among those, 49 cases were valued at more than ten million yuan.

In 2006, the country seized 9.07 billion counterfeit cigarettes and cracked 24 major cases. Each was valued at more than 10 million yuan and resulted in the prosecution of 2,313 people in total.

China's tobacco industry generated 388 billion yuan in taxes and profits last year, a 25 percent year-on-year increase, according to the STMA.

Autodesk R&D center

Autodesk Inc has established a new research and development center in Shanghai with 1,500 employees, the biggest R&D center among multinational firms in China, the US-based design software vendor said recently.

Autodesk, the maker of AutoCAD, said the center will combine Autodesk operations and Hanna Strategies, which it acquired in November, according to Shanghai Daily report.

The Autodesk China R&D Center will be based in Pudong New Area and it reflects the company's commitment to China, according to Carl Bass, Autodesk's president and chief executive.

"Merging our talented development teams in Shanghai strengthens Autodesk's engineering operations, provides us with internal efficiencies and increases our capacities," Bass says during the opening ceremony.

Autodesk's revenue was $1.8 billion for the 2007 fiscal year with 23 percent of that coming from Asia Pacific, the fastest growing region.

 

(China Daily 01/28/2008 page9)

2013-07-17