International Law

Hu Jintao's Serious Words About Innovation and IPR in China: "Treasure As Your Life"

Posted on December 28, 2009
Innovation is for each country crucial to compete. Now China's Harmony Express, the world's fastest long-distance passenger train service between Guangzhou (??) and Wuhan (??) has just been launched and is with 350 kilometers per hour 50 kilometers per hour faster than Japan's Shinkansen bullet train and France's TGVs...

No, I Don't Believe the Starbucks' counsel Who Said: "Chinese Customers Refill Cup With Coffee From Other Brands"

Posted on December 24, 2009
Mark Aoki-Fordham, director and corporate counsel at Starbucks Coffee Company said something ... well outlandish: ?We are still trying to educate Chinese customers about why our coffee is a good beverage to drink at all times of day -- and we?ve found that they are not the most loyal,? Aoki-Fordham noted...

Microsofts' MSN Juku Infringes Plurk and Apologises

Posted on December 22, 2009
MSN Juku, Microsoft's micro-blogging site in China, admitted that that it has infringed the copyright of Plurk, which is popular in Taiwan and the Philipines but is blocked in the PRC. Read relevant articles at the Plurk's blog:- Microsoft China rips off Asia's No...

Shanda Literature Ltd Sues Baidu For Alleged Copyright Infringement

Posted on December 22, 2009
Xie Yu reports for China Daily about Shanda Literature Limited's lawsuit against Baidu for alledged copyright piracy. Read more here.

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Appellate Body Report in Sino-American Dispute about Market Access for Copyrighted Products

Posted on December 22, 2009
Yesterday, it was announced that the Report of the Appellate Body in China ? Measures Affecting Trading Rights and Distribution Services for Certain Publications and Audiovisual Entertainment Products, WT/DS363/AB/R was published. The three Members of the Appellate Body who served on this appeal were: Ms...

Giorgio Armani Not Amused By Giormani of Hong Kong

Posted on December 17, 2009
IP Dragon was strolling in Sha Tin (??), minding his own business, until he came across a Giormani shop. Was Giorgio Armani saving costs by using less lettering on the billboards?Italian designer Giorgio Armani, who built the vast Emporio Armani (empire Armani) of clothing and luxury products, will probably not be amused that Kelvin Ng and Jane Tong founded Giormani, a Hong Kong sofa furniture design and manufacturing company in 1999...

Shanghai's "Bad Girl" Writer Mian Mian (??) Sues Google

Posted on December 16, 2009
The writer of the banned book Candy, and, Panda Sex (according to China Daily more mature) and Acid Love, sues Google.Shanghai's "Best Bad Girl" Author Mian Mian (??), finds support from the China Written Works Copyright Society. Chen Jia en Xie Yu of China Daily report: "Mian said Google scanned her entire novel, titled Acid Lover, published by the Shanghai Joint Publishing Company, without notifying her or paying her for copyright permission...

China's Protectionism Promotes Chinese Patents

Posted on December 15, 2009
IP Dragon's friend Peter Ollier of Managing Intellectual Property reports about the 'Instructions for National Indigenous Innovation Product Application Procedures', promulgated by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Center for Science and Technology in September 2009...

Prof Potter about China's Health Care Reform: "Do Not Forget Cost of Patent Protection"

Posted on December 15, 2009
December 10 and 11, 2009, IP Dragon attended interesting seminar called 'The Development of the Chinese Legal System: Change & Challenges' organised by the Centre for Chinese Law of the University of Hong Kong.Law Professor Pitman Potter of the University of British Columbia was talking about his upcoming paper "China's Health Care Policy"...

Media Control Not Copyright Piracy Main Reason For China's Battle Against BitTorrent

Posted on December 09, 2009
Frederik Borgesius (research master at IViR, studying copyright law and internet law for a semester at the University of Hong Kong, paralegal at solv.nl, a Dutch IP & IT boutique law firm, and "dj Fred" by night at Yumla for example) sent IP Dragon an interesting link...

Starbucks Is Coming From Venus, Copycats from St. Mars

Posted on December 03, 2009
Jamon Yerger is founder of Southern Perspective Shenzhen ("China Law Reference, doing it right the first time"), a consulting company in the bustling city of Shenzhen that provides advice on a range of business functions; the majority of which deal with manufacturing in China and legal protection for foreign companies engaged in supply chain activities...

How Much Does A Copyright Holder Get When His Content is Broadcast in China?

Posted on November 30, 2009
IP Dragon's friend Rogier Creemer, of Maastricht University, who is doing field research for his his PhD thesis about copyright, piracy and media control, points us to the provisional radio and tv broadcasting recording remuneration payment rules that will be effective January 1, 2010...

FEVS: "Mainland China Principal Counterfeiter Wine"

Posted on November 24, 2009
Dominique Schroeder has a good article about counterfeit wine for Agence France-Presse published in the South China Morning Post today."The mainland is "the principal counterfeiter", according to Renaud Gaillard, deputy director of the French export trade body, Federation des Exportateurs de Vins et Spriritueux de France (FEVS)...

Push Up the Plagiarism: It's a Photo, No ... It's a Painting

Posted on November 11, 2009
Joel Martinsen of the great site about Chinese media, advertising, urban life and many more fascinating subjects, Danwei.org, has a great blog about 'Painted plagiarism of push-up photograph' read here.

R&D in China: No Genuine Research, Only Development Thanks to Poor Execution IPR Laws

Posted on November 09, 2009
New Europe reports about EU firms' enthusiasm about China's market prospects and their concern about the execution of the IPR laws in China." ?China?s intellectual property laws are not bad. The problem is their implementation,? [EU?s Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC) President Joerg] Wuttke said...

Promotion and Protection of China's Culture: Hard Copyright For Soft Power

Posted on November 09, 2009
In The Economist special report on China and the US called 'Overkill' where the author James Miles postulates the opinion that China is piling up more weapons than it appears to need, Mr Miles also writes about the need for China to develop its soft power:"Soft power was mentioned for the first time by a Chinese leader in public in 2007...

US-China Green Technology Transfer Strained By Circular Reasoning

Posted on November 09, 2009
Last month (October 22nd 2009) The Economist had a special report about the relationship between China and the US. In the article 'The price of cleanliness' the circular reasoning is pointed out that makes solving the environmental challenge in China very difficult:"Technology transfer will also be a thorny issue...

iSuppli: China's Grey Mobile Phone Market Explodes

Posted on November 06, 2009
In China there is a vast amount of grey cell phones, which are phones manufactured in China that are not recognised or licensed by government regulators. Grey market shipments are set to be 145 million units. Read market research firm iSuppli's article about it here...

Sino-Korean Dispute About Dragon Boat Festival

Posted on November 05, 2009
A bit late, but too interesting to let it pass unnoticed, here is the article by Dr. Zhang Quanyi about South Korea and China who both applied at the UNESCO to put the same dragon boat festival on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritages; Dano versus Duanwu, see here...

First Issue The WIPO Journal Includes Articles About IPR in China

Posted on November 02, 2009
The first issue of the brand new 'WIPO Journal: Analysis and Debate about Intellectual Property Issues' has just been published. I have not read the issue yet, but I am sure Professor Peter K. Yu, the general editor of the magazine includes China in his article...

Professor David Llewlyn Explained All IPRs in One Hour

Posted on October 28, 2009
IP Dragon was attending yesterday evening the very inspiring lecture of Professor David Llewelyn at the University of Hong Kong, about the importance of intellectual property rights for not only experts, but everybody.Professor Llewelyn made clear that the lecture was a public lecture meant for non-experts; the normal consumers; and put experts and expertise in perspective...

"Games on iPhone Are 50-90 Percent Pirated"

Posted on October 27, 2009
Simon Carless of Gamasutra wrote that Vice-President Alan Yu of game developer ngmoco:) said at the GDC in Shanghai that "iPhone game piracy is a big issue, with 50%-90% piracy estimated in the first week of release on Ngmoco games." 50 to 90 percent of the potential income wiped out, thrashed, removed from the balance sheet...

Professor Llewelyn Asks Rhetorical Question About IPRs: "Too Important to Leave to the Lawyers?"

Posted on October 26, 2009
Tonight, IP Dragon is looking forward to attend the lecture of Professor David Llewelyn about the relevancy of Intellectual Property Rights for everybody."As Premier Wen Jiabao has been saying since 2004, world competition in the 21st century will revolve around competition for intellectual property rights (IPRs)...

Chinese Counterfeit ICs Sold To US Navy. How To Identify Them?

Posted on October 26, 2009
With the Somalian pirates hijacking ships (a Chinese container carrier fell into their hands), key words such as "piracy" and "pirates" seem to be reclaimed by the old fashioned thugs. Read here. However, the newer version of the pirates: trademark counterfeiters and copyright pirates can have just as deadly an effect...

ASEAN-China: IPR Cooperation and Standard MOUs

Posted on October 23, 2009
The Association of East Asian Nations (ASEAN) which includes Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalem, Cambodia, Myanmar, Lao PDR and Viet Nam will meet in Hua Hin, Thailand, from October 23 to 25.The ASEAN, ASEAN + 1 (ASEAN plus China), ASEAN + 3 (ASEAN plus China, South Korea and Japan) and East Asian Summit (ASEAN plus India, Australia and New Zealand) are held in Hua Hin, Thailand from Oct...

Russia to China: Kalashnikov's Copyright Should Be Protected

Posted on October 23, 2009
Topix reports that Russia and China are trying to reach an agreement on copyright protection of the Kalashnikov, the world famous assault rifle. Read here. More about the most famous Kalashnikov the AK-47 here.

Massive Chinese Copyright Trade at Frankfurt Book Fair

Posted on October 23, 2009
"Die Chinesen sind da," ("The Chinese are there", in German) was the motto of the biggest book fair in the world: the Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 6-10, 2009). China was Guest of Honour and the Chinese book publishers did show themselves prominently: "Chinese publishers have exported 1,310 copyright items, and imported 882 titles to foreign counterparts...

IPR/Espionage Ping-Pong Case: Fiat Sues Great Wall, Great Wall Sues Fiat

Posted on October 22, 2009
Fiat sued Great Wall, because it alleges that the Great Wall Peri infringes the intellectal property rights of the FIAT Panda. After this Great Wall sued FIAT at the Shijiazhuang People's Court, based on "evidence" provided by FIAT to the court that they made photo's of production facilities...

USCC 2008 Report to Congress: From Visible IPR Infringements To Undectable Cyber Espionage

Posted on October 22, 2009
The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission came up with their 2008 Report to Congress. The conclusion includes:"China continues to violate its WTO commitments to avoid trade distorting measures. Among the trade-related situations in China that are counter to those commitments are restricted market access for foreign financial news services, books, films and other media; weak intellectual property protection; sustained use of domestic and export subsidies; lack of transparency in regulatory processes; continued emphasis on implementing policies that protect and promote domestic industries to the disadvantage of foreign competition; import barriers and export preferences; and limitations on foreign investment or ownership in certain sectors of the economy...

China Written Works Copyright Society Objects Google Settlement

Posted on October 21, 2009
The China Written Works Copyright Society, representing 570 Chinese authors, objects to be included in the Google Class Action Settlement, between Google and US authors and publishers. They claim that the copyright of the Chinese authors is infringed...

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