Suitcase, bag-making base

The China Chamber of Commerce for Imports and Exports of Light Industrial Products and Arts-Crafts has recently signed a cooperation memo with Pinghu city of East China's Zhejiang province to set up a suitcase and bag manufacturing base.

Wang Zhongqi, vice-president of the chamber told Xinhua that this would foster the export of more famous brands and lay a foundation for long-run industry development, as well as help promote regional industrial upgrading. Zhejiang Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau would also help by improving the quality of suitcases and bags for export.

The country has more than 18,000 suitcase and bag exporters, most of which are in Zhejiang, Guangdong, Fujian provinces and Shanghai. Located in Zhejiang, with a population of more than 500,000, Pinghu city saw the sector turning out more than 5 billion yuan in sales volume last year, according to Shi Jihong, local industry chamber president.

A 'hairy' situation

Let's see Hari Puttar get out of this one.

Bollywood producers set to release a film called Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors have recently worked to fend off a lawsuit filed by Warner Bros that claimed the movie title was too close to its mega-famous boy wizard franchise. While Bollywood films often borrow liberally from Western movies, producers of "Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors" say their movie bears no resemblance to any "Harry Potter" film.

"There is absolutely nothing to link 'Hari Puttar' with 'Harry Potter'," said Munish Purii, chief executive officer of Mumbai-based producer Mirchi Movies. "Hari" is a common name in India and "puttar" is Punabji for son, he says.

International IPR seminar

An international seminar which aims to help further boost IPR protection awareness of Chinese enterprises took place in Guangdong province late last month. It also taught Chinese enterprises how to get and protect IPRs in Europe, and promote the competitiveness in international market by using IPRs.

The International Seminar on European IP System - Industrial Design and Patent was convened in the province of South China, and co-hosted by the State Intellectual Property Office, European Patent Office, the EU Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market (OHIM) and Guangdong Provincial Intellectual Property Office.

Li Yuguang, vice-commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office, Tao Kaiyuan, director of Guangdong IP Office and related officials from OHIM and European Patent Office attended and addressed the meeting. About 180 people from all IP offices of Guangdong province, enterprises, law circle and scientific research institutions took part.

IPRs urged for SMEs

At the Fifth China International Patent & Brand Expo on September 19, Deputy Commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office Zhang Qin urged China's small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to dig out the advantage of IPRs and foster independent brands.

"An IPR is a strategic resource of the development of SMEs. So enterprises should independently innovate and dig out the advantage of IPRs and foster independent brands, so as to effectively elevate their competitiveness," Zhang says.

The Fifth China International Patent & Brand Expo, which was held in Foshan city of Guangdong province, was co-hosted by the State Intellectual Property Office and Guangdong government. With the theme of "Innovation, Creation and Invention", it attracted more than 500 enterprises from home and abroad with their newest patent technologies and brands.

Cartoon industry support

The Ministry of Culture recently issued the Measures on Supporting the Development of China's Cartoon Industry, aiming to support original animation works and create animation brands and images with independent IPR.

The regulation stressed the need to strengthen market supervision and IPR protection. With focus on China-made cartoon images, brands and derivative products, efforts should be made to intensify the protection of intellectual property rights.

By means of day-to-day supervision and special rectification, departments will crack down on illegal activities, protect legitimate business, standardize the market order and create favorable environment for animation industry, the measures say.

The measures also list the specific initiatives for supporting cartoon industry, including improving the industrial chain, developing support system and speeding up platform construction.

Software competition begins

"2008 China Open Source Software Competition and the Open Source Software Innovation and Enterprise Application contest was recently began in Beijing. The event was sponsored by Torch High Tech Industrial Development Center and High Technology R&D Center of MOST (the Ministry of Science and Technology), and organized by Co-Create Software Branch of China Software Industry Association (Co-Create Software League) and the Software Park Branch of China Association of New and High-tech Zones.

The competition emphasized open source software application in enterprises, in particular, shifting the focus from encouraging pure technological development to enterprise applications. The competition will be closed in mid-October.

Software industry groups with the State Torch Program primarily organized the contest and participants include software enterprises devoted to commercializing and applying open source software technology.

(China Daily 10/06/2008 page9)