$25,000 prize

Nokia Corporation announced in February the final winners in its global Calling All Innovators contest for mobile applications to help improve the quality of life on the planet. A Chinese company won the grand prize in the Technology Showcase Category.

Challenged to create applications to improve the quality of life around the world, the grand prize winners are Green Drive by Road-Guard (Israel) in the Eco-Challenge category; Nano Ganesh by Santosh Ostwal (India) in the Emerging Markets category; and X Dancery by Simlife Ltd (China) in the Technology Showcase category. X Dancery, fully optimized for the S60 5th Edition's touchscreen UI and motion sensor technology and with advanced 3D-graphics rendering capabilities, analyzes any MP3 file to automatically generate a unique tempo-based game for each selected musical track.

Each of the grand prize winners received $25,000 and will receive help in distributing their mobile applications to consumers worldwide.

60b yuan and 4.4b yuan

In 2009, Chengdu in Southwest China's Sichuan province will speed up its research and development (R&D) activities in its western region, with an estimated investment of 60 billion yuan in manufacturing technology renovation and 4.4 billion yuan in technology innovation.

25 GI products

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) announced recently the latest group of products protected as geographical indications. Changxing Japanese snakegourd seed, Xinjiang Hami melon, Aksu Jujube and Xuchang dried bean curd sticks are among the 25 products.

100 plants

Yunnan province in Southwest China developed over 100 products in varieties in 2008 such as Chinese rose, cornice, chrysanthemum, gerbera, 11 of which earned the right of new plant variety. More than 80 percent of the nation's intellectual property rights of new plant varieties in fresh flowers are from the southwestern province.

21 participants

The Wuhan Municipal IP Office of Hubei province recently convened a symposium on foreign-related IP strategy and practice, which unveiled the prelude of the lecture circuit on foreign-related IP protection. At least 10 foreign-related enterprises and 11 patent agencies from Wuhan attended the symposium. The Wuhan Municipal IP Office invited experts from Paul Hastings, a preeminent American law firm, to provide consultation and give speeches, including the basic framework of IP protection in America.

(China Daily 03/09/2009 page11)