IPR partners

South China's Guangdong province will partner with Hong Kong and Macao to better protect intellectual property rights.

Statements encouraging cooperation were issued following a two-day seminar in Hong Kong on Guangdong-HK-Macao Intellectual Property Laws.

Hu Zhong, vice-chairman of the China Law Society, said at the seminar that Guangdong province and the cities of Hong Kong and Macao should strengthen cooperation on IPR cases with the increasing integration of legal protections affecting the Pearl River Delta region.

The seminar focused on how the province and cities could overcome differences in legal systems to better handle cross-jurisdictional cases.

Counterfeit goods

Industry and commerce departments across China handled 41,700 cases involving the manufacture and sale of counterfeit goods during the first six months of 2009.

The cases involved goods valued at 392 million yuan.

Last year, 128,900 cases involving counterfeit goods were investigated. The total value of those goods was 1.55 billion yuan.

According to the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, 15,500 cases involving allegations of trademark infringement were investigated during the first six months of this year.

Trademarks

Southwestern China's Chongqing municipality reported a surge in trademark registrations during the first six months of this year.

During the period, 3,985 trademarks were registered in the city, up 68.8 percent year-on-year.

Of the new trademarks, 574 were for agricultural products, a 51.5 percent year-on-year increase.

This year's new registrations add to a total of 38,271 trademarks registered in the city.

IP acquisition

US-based China Nuvo Solar Energy, which has locations in the United States and China's Sichuan province, acquired Intellectual Property (IP) rights to photovoltaic technologies.

The company reported acquiring six patents from Photovoltaics Inc for a variety of solar technologies and innovations.

China Nuvo is an early-stage company developing a commercially viable, higher-efficiency photovoltaic solar cell.

The newly acquired IP is for enhancements of existing technologies that range from increases in output and efficiency to the use of lower-cost photovoltaic materials and processes, the company stated.

New patent

China Kangtai Cactus Biotech Inc, a vertically integrated grower, developer, manufacturer and marketer of a variety of cactus-based products in China, said it plans to begin marketing its newly patented cactus hog feed in the fourth quarter of 2009.

The new hog feed is expected to increase 2009 sales by approximately $330,000, the company reported.

China Kangtai, which is now listed in the United States, was awarded patents from China's State Intellectual Property Office in 2008.

IPR query

India's Ministry of Heavy Industries has cautioned China's Ministry of Power that Shanghai Boiler Works Ltd (SBWL), a subsidiary of Shanghai Electric Corp, could be violating Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) laws, according to the publication Hindu Business Line.

The Ministry of Heavy Industries is the parent ministry of India's BHEL, a major power equipment maker.

"It has been reported by Alstom to BHEL that SBWL does not have the permission to sell in India the supercritical boilers manufactured in collaboration with Alstom," India's Ministry of Heavy Industries was quoted as stating.

The collaboration extends only to the Chinese market, the report said.

While Shanghai Electric has supplied boilers to a number of projects, it has not supplied any supercritical sets in India, according to the report.

(China Daily 07/20/2009 page9)