Three million trademarks

China's registered trademarks surpassed 3 million by the end of last year, says the State Intellectual Property Office. In 2007 alone, the Trademark Office under the State Administration for Industry and Commerce received 708,000 trademark registration applications. Of these, 405,000 have been examined and 263,000 ratified.

Offices of industrial and commercial administration at all levels investigated 50,318 cases of trademark violations in 2007. A total of 28.17 million illegal trademark signs were confiscated, and 228 suspected offenders were transferred to judicial authorities.

In the area of patent application, the office received 694,000 patent applications from home and abroad, an increase of 21.1 percent from the previous year.

Of the applications, those from China totaled 5,401, up 41.2 percent from the previous year. The United States filed the most applications, followed by Japan, Germany, France, South Korea, Britain and China.

Nearly 3,000 IPR arrests

Altogether 2,967 people were arrested for suspected violations of intellectual property rights (IPR) in China last year, according to the State Intellectual Property Office.

The public security departments investigated 2,283 cases of IPR infringement and solved 2,008 cases, involving 1.49 billion yuan.

A report, released jointly by the State Intellectual Property Office, the National Copyright Administration and the Trademark Office under the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, says efforts to combat IPR infringement made substantial progress last year.

Local courts tried 2,684 criminal cases that involved 4,328 persons, some of whom had been arrested in previous years and 4,322 people were found guilty, according to the report.

Also, customs units across the country intercepted 7,467 import and export shipments of counterfeit items in 2007 valued at 438 million yuan, the report said.

It says cultural administrative enforcement authorities nationwide had had stepped up their daily efforts against criminal IPR violations. According to the report, 4.91 million staff from cultural agencies inspected 850,000 audio and video outlets in 2007. Authorities confiscated 110 million counterfeit CDs, DVDs and the like during nationwide IPR campaigns in 2007, it said.

Book copyright exports rise

According to China Book International (CBI) the export of book copyrights in China has risen in recent years.

In 2007, the member units of CBI exported 1,397 copyrights (not including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan), 200 more than in 2006. China International Publishing Group exported 217 copyrights and took the first place in the 2007 copyright export list.

Nike vs Adidas

Competition between two sports goods giants, Nike and Adidas, is now in a different arena - a Shanghai court. Nike is suing its German competitor and product endorser Chinese soccer star Zheng Zhi, a Xinhua News Agency report says.

At a hearing held earlier this month, Nike Sports (China) told Shanghai No 1 Intermediate People's Court that Adidas and Zheng - captain of the Chinese soccer team and a midfield player with England's Charlton Athletic - had harmed its interests.

Nike said Zheng was recruited by Adidas who promised more money and wore Adidas products and attended its publicity events while working as a brand ambassador for Nike.

It is seeking 8 million yuan in compensation from the two.

But the accused parties said Nike broke its contract with Zheng due to nonpayment.

Nike had withdrawn a similar suit accusing Adidas of unfair competition for lack of evidence, Jiang Xian, the attorney of the 28-year-old soccer player, is quoted as saying.

SMEs drive new products

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have become a major force in promoting China's science and technology innovations, and total more than 65 percent of the country's patents, a senior official has said.

Li Yuguang, deputy head of the State Intellectual Property Office said that more than 80 percent of China's new products were from SMEs, according to the Science and Technology Daily.

However, SMEs generally lack awareness of IPR protection, with 80.2 percent of them having no IPR department, says Li.

Anti-piracy video winner

The Motion Picture Association (MPA), the organizers of the 15th Beijing Student Film Festival (BSFF) and the China Film Copyright Protection Association (CFCPA) announced the winners of a China-wide short video production competition on the theme "Respect Copyrights, Stay Away from Piracy".

Competition entries were judged on impact, clarity of message, creativity and originality, and entertainment value. The contest, won by Yang Tingting, 21, from the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, was open to students at more than 300 universities throughout China and challenged filmmakers to take a fresh look at the value of intellectual property to society and to individuals.

Yang's flash animation, I Want to Buy Legitimate features three different shop owners who only sell pirated DVDs, forcing the customer to wonder whether "I want to buy pirate?" Yang's winning production earns her a trip to Hollywood to visit the MPA Head Office and member company film studios.

New Samsung TV for China

South Korean home appliance giant Samsung recently launched its flat panel TV series to tap the potential of the Chinese high-end TV market. Its "Full HD 1080p" technology as well as the black LCD panel can bring "incredibly stable and clear picture with unparalleled definition", the company claims.

To meet the local demand to watch sports during the Olympics, the company also equipped the series with "one touch" key to easily switch to the sports mode.

Samsung has labs around the world devoting to bring the most innovative products to the market. Its R&D facility in the headquarters in South Korea and San Jose, California, are dedicated to develop the next generation of consumer electronics platforms: mobile phones, PDAs, TVs, Set top boxes and home networks.

 

(China Daily 04/28/2008 page9)

2013-07-17