Wanfang Data sued

Wanfang Data, an Internet information content provider in China, has been sued by 480 academics for illegally including their dissertations in Wanfang's data resource system and its dissertation database called Dissertations of China, according to Beijing Chaoyang People's Court.

The academics say these dissertations, which were completed by them independently, have not been published yet, but Wanfang Data put these dissertations into electronic versions and put them in its data resource system and Dissertations of China without the authorizations of the writers. They say the company reaps high profits by selling its system to libraries and offering online browsing and downloading services. They require Wanfang Data to make a public apology and compensate their economic losses and emotional distress. The demanded compensation amount is reportedly about 7,000 yuan for each person.

This has been the third lawsuit filed against Wanfang Data following two in June.

Copyright case heard

Shanghai No 1 Intermediate People's Court recently began hearing criminal charges against a gang accused of global trading in pirated software - at over $10 million, the biggest case of copyright violation in Shanghai's history, the Shanghai Daily reported.

The two prime defendants were identified as Ma Jingyi, 50, of Sichuan province, and Lu Yi, 50, a Shanghai native who also holds Hong Kong residency.

Prosecutors allege that from July 2003 to February 2007, Ma instructed his employees to sell 677,000 pieces of pirated software and 15 mother discs to overseas clients. The sales netted $10.48 million, according to authorities.

All the defendants admitted to the charge of copyright infringement, but some questioned the sales volume and the amount of proceeds.

Prosecutors said Ma once belonged to a gang selling pirated software in the United States. But he returned to China on holiday just as American police began pursuing him. Ma formed three firms in Shanghai in July 2003 and hired Yu Yifan, Li Xi, Wang Xiaodong and Xia Lei to sell pirated software to overseas clients via the Internet, prosecutors said.

Each piece of pirated software was sold for $15, less than 40 percent of the price of a real copy. The employees, who all knew they were selling pirates, were paid based on the sales volume, Ma said.

Yu, department manager for Ma's company, was in charge of managing employees, keeping sales records and distributing commissions.

Lu and three other defendants allegedly produced pirated discs and wholesaled them to Ma.

Copyright violators in China face a maximum of seven years' jail.

Financial backing

From 2008 to 2010, Guangzhou will invest more than 1 billion yuan annually in enterprises' independent innovation and hi-tech development.

Zhang Guangning, the city's mayor, recently said that Guangzhou has set a goal of being an "innovation-based city" within 10 years and will beef up efforts to groom large hi-tech groups with independent intellectual property rights to form a dominant hi-tech industrial cluster.

Enhancing enterprises' innovation capability is a key factor for fulfilling the target. The city will offer a total of 3 billion yuan to transform "made in Guangzhou" to "created in Guangzhou", Zhang said.

Subsidy to patent owners

Qinyang of Henan province recently gave a subsidy of over 37,000 yuan to individuals and units winning national granted patents.

Qinyang is the IPR pilot city in Henan and has allocated 15 million yuan in scientific innovation, IPR research and development and awarding in recent two years. It also awarded each granted invention patent, utility model and design patent 5,000 yuan, 2,000 yuan and 500 yuan respectively to develop IPR regional advantage.

Registration simplified

The Ningbo Council for the Promotion of International Trade recently simplified application procedures for international registration of trademarks.

Local enterprises can apply for international trademarks by Madrid International Registration of Trademarks directly without a domestic trademark certificate. Therefore, the application time could be shortened by two to three years.

The Madrid International Registration of Trademarks is the most important route for international trademark filings for enterprises in Ningbo. Recently, the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Trademarks was modified. Since Sept 1, after the local trademark bureau handles an application for trademark registration, enterprises can apply for international trademarks straight away.

(China Daily 09/15/2008 page9)