Copyright trade center

The new Shanghai Copyright Trade Center opened recently. Shanghai Municipal Copyright Bureau and Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange founded the center. It will engage in property and stock trading of companies who take copyrights as their main assets.

Patent applications up

The amount of patent applications in Yunnan province hit 1,838 in the first half of this year, up 33.1 percent compared with the same period of last year, according to statistics issued by Yunnan Intellectual Property Office. The amount of patent application of inventions, utility models and designs are 637, 674 and 527 respectively, rising by 46.44 percent, 41.60 percent and 12.37 percent over the same period of last year.

Among the application, there were 965 service patents, accounting for 52.5 percent. Of the service patent applications, 360 were filed by universities, 450 by enterprises, 138 by scientific research institutes and 17 by government bodies.

Double awards

Enterprises with well-known trademarks in the Tianjin Economical-Technological Development Area (TEDA) will receive double rewards this year, according to the economic development board of TEDA. Companies that are granted Chinese Well-known Trademarks are not only awarded with 1 million yuan by the Tianjin municipal government but also receive another 1 million yuan from the management committee of TEDA. The efforts are expected to encourage enterprises in TEDA to strengthen their trademark and brand strategy and enhance their awareness of intellectual property rights protection.

Phony-drug ring busted

Customs officers of Hong Kong recently arrested the mastermind of a syndicate distributing counterfeit drugs smuggled from the mainland. The operation saw 60,000 counterfeit-drug tablets worth $2.7 million seized, including anti-impotence drugs and antidepressants, and sleeping and slimming pills. The syndicate's 67-year-old mastermind was also arrested.

The gang smuggled the goods from the mainland and stored them in a Mong Kok flat. It packed the counterfeits to look like the genuine products, claiming they were parallel imports and distributed them to local dispensaries through dealers.

IP service for SMEs

The latest statistics released by Shenzhen Intellectual Property Office show that in the first half of this year, the total number of patent applications in Shenzhen was 16,709, up 21.41 percent over the same period of last year. Among them, 8,795 are applications for invention patents, which rose 28.90 percent.

Shenzhen IP Office has been trying to consolidate the IP advantages in the city and intensified tracing services for major IP enterprises. The office especially reinforced IP services for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) this year. It has set up a service cooperation mechanism between IP agencies and SMEs, researched entrustment services of IP agencies, provided professional services for consultation, agents and appraisals for SMEs and helped them to apply for invention patents.

Subsidies increased

The Yingkou municipal government in Liaoning province recently revised its Management Measures on Subsidies and Funds for Patent Applications and increased the subsidies for international patent applications. The measures regulate the enterprises and institutions and individuals who are applying for domestic or foreign patents. They can apply for funds and subsidies. Each international invention patent application can be subsidized by up to 5,000 yuan. A domestic invention patent application is subsidized by up to 1,000 yuan, with utility model patents and design patents subsidized by 400 yuan and 200 yuan respectively.

Digital publishing base

China's first national digital publishing base opened in Shanghai's Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park recently. The venture is a cooperative agreement between the General Administration of Press and Publication of China and the Shanghai municipal government.

Officials say they plan to build well-known brands for digital publications at the Zhangjiang National Digital Publishing Base in order to own intellectual property for digital publications and attract the world's most advanced technologies.

Digital publishing covers database services, online education platforms, electronic books, network games and online music download services.

Major press groups such as Shanghai Century Publication Co, Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Group and Shanghai Print Group will soon enter the base. Hong Kong Star Group Co will move its headquarters, innovation and design departments there.

The Pudong new area government will dedicate 50 million yuan a year from 2008 to 2011 to support construction and development of the base. Preferential policies on tax and financing will be offered to companies settling in the base.

Trademark lawsuit

The Beijing municipal high people's court has ruled in the plaintiff's favor with regard to the charge of both trademark infringements and unfair competition, in a recent case between Komandor S. A. from Poland and Coamdo Furniture (Shanghai) Co Ltd.

The plaintiff (Komandor) charged the defendant (Coamdo) with infringing on its trademark rights by using the same trademark except the addition of the Chinese characters for similar products, intentionally confusing consumers as to the origin of the products.

The court ordered the Shanghai company to stop using the trademark and the company names of both Kemanduo in Chinese characters and Komandor in English, and pay damages for economic losses in the amount of 100,000 yuan and legal cost in the amount of 4,035 yuan.

The case has been especially significant in reminding domestic companies being careful of using trademarks or company names that are similar to the translated Chinese names of foreign companies of the same industries, says Qiu Baochang, dean of the Beijing-based Huijia Law Firm.

(China Daily 07/28/2008 page9)