Patent

On October 9th, the signing ceremony of the Patent Examination Cooperation Center of the Patent Office of SIPO in Sichuan, was held in Chengdu. The Center was co-built by SIPO, Sichuan Provincial People’s Government, and Chengdu People’s Government.

Conference

The first Zhongguancun International IP Forum was held in Beijing on October 16th with the theme “Innovation Drives Development and IP Protection.”

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The First Zhongguancun International IP Forum
Organized by the Institute for Intellectual Property Protection at Z-Park, the Forum aimed at implementing national IP strategies, strengthening IP protection, promoting international IP communication and cooperation, striving to build a commanding point in academia, eliminating the isolated island phenomenon, removing the obstacles of restricting technology transfer and diffusion, and providing intelligent support for building an innovative country. Additionally, the Forum sought to explore the scientific mechanisms for collective innovation of administration, production, study, research and application.

Others

In October, the Wenzhou Institute of Intellectual Property, the first IP institute in a higher vocational college, was co-founded Others by Zhejiang Industry & Trade Vocational College, Wenzhou Science & Technology Bureau (IP Office of Wenzhou), and the Administrative Committee in Wenzhou High-tech Zone. Professor Tao Xinliang acts as the first President.

Conference

IP Law Seminar of Beijing Law Society held the first member representative assembly on October 19th.

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IP Law Seminar of Beijing Law Society
The seminar aimed to unify the IP law practitioners and other law practitioners in Beijing. The aims were to develop IP legal research and communication activities with the guidance of the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and socialist legal concept, to promote the development of IP law closely relying on reality in order to play a professional role in the research and practice of IP law, and to make an active contribution to Beijing’s development and social civilization. The seminar was a remedy for the lack of IP law seminars in Beijing, which has intensive IP talents and plentiful practical experience.

Patent

On October 22nd, SIPO released a Draft Revision of the Patent Examination Guidelines (Draft for Comments) to seek public opinions.

Trademark

On October 24th, the 14th Huaihai Economic Zone Trademark Protection Coordination Conference, co-sponsored by the Administration for Industry and Commerce in Jiangsu, Shandong, He’nan, and Anhui, was held in Zaozhuang city of Shandong Province. The conference aimed to further enforce the protection of exclusive trademark rights and promote trademark development in the region through establishing the trademark coordination protection network in Huaihai economic zone.

International

On October 28th, Microsoft (China) Co., Ltd. signed an agreement with Tsinghua University to co-establish “Tsinghua University - Microsoft Joint Research Center for Innovation and Intellectual Property.”

Copyright

At the end of October, the National Copyright Administration and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly published The Payment Remuneration Method of the Statutory License Works in Textbooks, which clarified and specified the payment methods for using published works in textbooks.

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The End of Using the Statutory License Works in Textbooks for Free
The Payment Remuneration Method of the Statutory License Works in Textbooks (The Method) stipulated that, within two months after the publishing date of textbooks, it is necessary for textbook compilers to provide remuneration to copyright holders according to The Method . Otherwise, it should deliver suitable remuneration, postage, and citations for the used works to the applicable copyright collective organization within the first month of each semester. The copyright collective organization is responsible for transferring the remittance to copyright holders timely in accordance with the regulations and providing citations for the used works by textbook compilers on the website.

[November]

Conference

From November 2nd to 3rd, IPR and Innovation- Driven Forum - 2013 Annual Conference of China Intellectual Property Law Association was held in Hangzhou.

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2013 Annual Conference of China Intellectual Property Law Association
This academic conference was themed “IPR and Innovation Development,” and focused on the significant IP issues in China. It developed parallel sessions centering on the following topics: 1. basic theories of IPR laws; 2. hot spots of IP legislation and revision; 3. reflections and advances of IP strategies; 4. IP judicial protection; 5. IP abuse and antitrust; 6. technological development and IPR; 7. administrative protection of IP; 8. IP issues of the creative industry; 9. IPR international protection and overseas preservation; 10. IP issues of commercial signs; and 11. trade secrets protection.

Trademark

Gucci won the lawsuit for trademark infringement against Guess in early November. According to Nanjing Intermediate People’s Court, The defendant, who was accused of trademark infringement and unfair competition, had brought serious damages to Gucci’s brand reputation.

Judicial Adjudication

The free trade zone tribunal of Shanghai’s new district court was established on November 5th, dealing with and hearing civil and commercial cases in the field of investment, trade, finance, IP, real estate, etc. Shanghai International Arbitration Center also has come into operation, receiving IP disputes cases.

Trademark

The Trademark Office of The State Administration for Industry and Commerce of the P.R.C. revoked the classic grid graphic trademark of Burberry on November 11th. Burberry intended to institute an appeal.

Judicial Adjudication

The Decision on Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening Reforms (The Decision) was adopted at the close of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee on November 12th. The Decision put forward to intensify IP utilization and protection, improve the incentive mechanism of technological innovation, and establish IP courts.

Trademark

BaijiaFensi in Sichuan officially used its new trademark “BaijiaChenji” on November 12th, which ended the six-year trademark dispute between “Baijia” and “Baixiang.”

Patent

On November 13th, the Certification and Accreditation Administration (CNCA) and SIPO released The Opinions on the Implementation of the Certification of Intellectual Property Management Systems.

Copyright

On November 13th, the “Joint Action Against Online Video Piracy in China” was started by dozens of domestic copyrighted video websites and copyright owners in order to adopt a technical counter and legal litigation against the pirate behaviors of Baidu Player and Qvod Player.

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Joint Action Against Online Video Piracy in China
China online video anti-piracy joint action started on November 13th in Beijing. Video websites including Youku,Tudou, Sohu Video, Tencent Video, and LeTV as well as organizations such as China Film Copyright Association (Collective), Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Letv Films, etc. jointly announced “A Declaration of Joint Action Against Online Video Piracy in China” being aimed at jointly fighting against the increasingly serious online video piracy and hotlinking from Baidu Player, Qvod Player, etc. On November 29th, Haidian District People’s Court decided on the first instance that Baidu Player infringed on the copyright of YoutubeTudou Inc. and should stop the infringement immediately with a fine of 490,000 yuan. On December 27th, National Copyright Administration asserted that Baidu Player and Qvod player constituted piracy and should pay for a fine of 250,000 yuan each and stop the infringement practices.

International

2013 Ambassador’s Roundtable on Intellectual Property Rights Protection was held on November 14th in Beijing, focusing on three topics: Copyright Law amendments, legal framework for trade secrets protection, and IPR enforcement.

Anti-trust

The second instance for Qihoo 360 v. Tencent on “abusing the dominant market position” was tried in Supreme People’s Court on November 26th.

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The Appeal of “3Q War” Anti-trust Case
The anti-trust case of Qihoo 360 v. Tencent, also known as “the first Internet anti-trust case,” was tried before the Supreme People’s Court. It was also the first Internet anti-trust case tried before the Supreme People’s Court for the six years since the implementation of Chinese Anti-trust Law. The first instance dismissed all 360’s claims.

Conference

The First Asia-Pacific IPR Forum, jointly initiated by Renmin University and many other universities in the Asia-Pacific area, was held from November 16th to 17th in Suzhou.

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The First Asia-Pacific IPR Forum
The Forum had attracted over 200 participants including officials from WIPO, experts and scholars from the U.S., Canada, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and Mainland China, as well as local officers and entrepreneurs. With the theme of “Globalization and Localization of IPR System”, the forum addressed an in-depth and overall discussion on the improvement of IPR systems, the protection of innovation, trade and IPR, and other topics.

Patent

The 7th China Patent Week which was themed “Guide Industrial Development with Patent and Support Business Innovation,” held the opening ceremony on November 21st.

International

On November 21st, the jury in the U. S. district court in San Jose, California awarded Apple 290 million U.S. dollars in damages in the legal battle with Samsung on the patent infringement.

Trademark

YAMA RIBBONS & BOWS CO., LTD. received the trademark registration certification “姚 明” from the Chinese Trademark Office on November 19th.

Copyright

On November 26th, Tencent got the right to exclusively broadcast the 2014 Chinese Good Voice on the Internet with an astonishingly high price of 250 billion yuan.

[December]

Trademark

In December, trademark infringement and unfair competition disputes of Wu Fang Zhai was tried for the second instance in the Shanghai Higher People’s Court. After battling for three years, Zhejiang Wu Fang Zhai eventually defended its brand.

Anti-unfair Competition

On December 4th, the anti-unfair competition case of Tencent v. 360 buttoned bodyguards, also known as the “first Internet anti-unfair competition case,” was appealed and tried in public in the first tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court.

Copyright

Sohu launched a “homemade” strategy, intending to create a new pattern of “homemade contents” in 2014 and striving to open a “homemade era.”

Others

On December 4th, the Eighth Session of Intergovernmental Panel on Protecting Intangible Cultural Heritage organized by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) decided to include the Chinese abacus calculation program into the Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Trademark

On December 9th, the trademark disputes case of Suzhou “DAOXIANGCUN” v. Beijing “DAOXIANGCUN” was tried in public before Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court.

Trademark

The Supreme People’s Court ordered a retrial in the “Castel” trademark battle and ordered to suspend executing the verdict of second instance from Zhejiang Higher People’s Court on December 11th.

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Trademark between Beijing and Suzhou “Castel” Trademark Infringement Case
In 2009, Li Daozhi, the trademark holder of Chinese “Ka Si Te,” filed a trademark infringement lawsuit to the Wenzhou Intermediate People’s Court. In March 2013, the Wenzhou Intermediate People’s Court made a verdict in the first instance that the defendant, a French wine merchant “Castel,” did infringe on the trademark of Li Daozhi, the trademark holder of Chinese “Ka Si Te” with compensation of 33.73 million yuan. The defendant submitted appeals and the case was brought to Zhejiang Higher People’s Court, which upheld the previous verdict. Afterwards, the defendant continued to institute the appeals to the Supreme People’s Court for retrial.

Patent

As of December 11th, the amount of patent agencies approved in China was up to 1001, creating a new record, according to SIPO.

International

On December 12th, Seoul Central District Court announced the defeat of Apple in the first instance of the patent infringement case of Samsung v. Apple.

Patent

On December 16th, Chinese Lunar Exploration Program and the research of Chang’e 3 had obtained a series of innovative achievements with independent IPR, according to the press conference of the State Council Information Office.

Patent

The Patent Agent Examination Committee of SIPO released the qualifying marks for the 2013 China Patent Bar Examination on December 18th and 3812 examinees passed the examination, up 28.52% comparing with 2012.

Anti-unfair Competition

On December 20th, the false advertising case of Wong Lo Kat v. JDB was announced in Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court. In the first instance, the verdict believed that JDB’s advertisements constituted infringement and the advertisements involved were required to be destroyed plus compensation of 10 million yuan. Unsatisfied with the verdict JDB would submit appeals.

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The First Infringement Case on Slogan
On January 31st 2013, after Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Holdings Limited had paid the deposit of 10 million yuan, Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court issued an interlocutory injunction ordering JDB to stop using the slogan, “Red cans of herbal tea with the national leading sales has been renamed JDB,” which had become the first case using an interlocutory injunction in disputes on enterprise slogans in China. Because of its particularity with local characteristics, the case had attracted great concerns, which earned the name of “The First Infringement Case on Slogan.”

Others

On December 23rd, according to the cadre conference of SIPO, Shen Changyu has been named the new Commissioner of SIPO and Secretary of the Party Committee of SIPO, taking the place of his predecessor Mr. Tian Lipu, who had served as the organization’s commissioner since June 2005.

Trademark

On December 24th, the first instance concerning the trademark infringement case of Deere Company v. JOTECH (Qingdao), JOTECH (Beijing) was judged in Beijing Second Intermediate People’s Court, ordering the two defendants to stop the infringement immediately with compensation of 450,000 yuan. It was the first time for a court in Beijing to determine the infringement of a color combination trademark.

Trademark

Beijing Higher People’s Court announced a second instance verdict on the review of adjudication on opposition of the trademark “Jinjunmei” on December 24th and confirmed that “Jinjunmei” should not be registered as a trademark as it is the generic name of black tea.

Trademark

China’s registration applications in 2013 were over 1.88 million, continuing to maintain a trend of rapid growth.

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The Annual Statistics of the Chinese Trademark Office 2013
According to the latest statistics from the Chinese Trademark Office, China saw 1,881,546 newly filed trademark registration applications in 2013, an annual increase of 14.15%. By the end of 2013, the cumulative trademark applications in China surpassed 13 million (13,241,337), and the cumulative trademark registrations were 8,652,358 with 7,237,894 effective registered trademarks.
In recent years, China’s trademark registration applications continued to maintain a rapid growth trend. Since 2010, China has gained considerable momentum in filing trademark applications, with 1,072,000 in 2010, 1,417,000 in 2011, 1,648,000 in 2012 and 1,882,000 in 2013, hitting a historical record.

Patent

In 2013, SIPO received 825,000 applications for invention patents.

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The Annual Statistics of SIPO 2013
According to the lotest statistics, SIPO in 2013 received a total number of 2,377,000 patent applications for the three types of patents, including invention patents, utility models, and designs, up 15.9%, with 1,313,000 granted, up 4.6%. Among them, the licensing for invention patents was 825,000, a growth of 26.3%; the granting for invention patents was 208,000 decreased by 4.1%.
The statistics show that the invention patent filings were still on the fast track, accounting for 34.7% of the total, more than one-third for the first time. Of the 825,000 invention patent applications, 705,000 were from China, up 31.8%. Among the 705,000 domestic invention applications, 81.0% were for service patents, up 33.4%. Besides, the invention patents granted in 2013 decreased by 4.1%, marking that China’s progress in invention patent quality has functioned effectively. Of the 208,000 invention patents granted, 144,000 were domestic, which is equal to that of last year. In 2013, foreign inventions granted decreased by 12.3%. A worthy statistic was that 427,000 invention applications were from Chinese enterprises, accounting for 60.6% of the Chinese invention applications, 79,000 of which were granted, representing 54.9% of the Chinese invention grants. All these reflected that enterprises had been the main force of inventions.

Patent

The Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council on December 30th released the Revised Draft Law of the People’s Republic of China for Promoting the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements by the Ministry of Science and Technology for public comment in a bid to further study and modify before submitting to the Executive Meetings of the State Council for review.

Copyright

The State Copyright Administration, State Internet Information Office, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and Ministry of Public Security jointly announced ten cases of combat online piracy, the special governance of “Sword Action” in Beijing on December 30th.

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2013 Ten Cases of “Sword Action”
1. The copyright infringement case of Baidu Player v. Qvod Player
2. The case of Beijing “siluhd” pirating HD digital work
3. The case of Mr. Wang in Shanghai selling non-authorized pirate ISO standards through the Internet
4. The copyright violated case of Jiangsu Guotai Epoint Software
5. The case of Beijing “Sunshine Education” online store selling pirate children’s publications
6. The case of Zhejiang “POPCORN” propagating nonauthorized filmographies on the Internet
7. The case of Jiangsu Yangzhou “Animation House” diffusing pirate cartoons
8. Anhui “rushing” copyright infringement case
9. The case of the online game “Legend of Mir” infringed by Mr. Kang in Shandong
10. The copyright infringement case of some mobile music software in Shanghai

Judicial Adjudication

Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court concluded 2,799 administrative cases for granting and confirming patent and trademark rights in 2013.

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The Data of IP Related Cases in Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court
In 2013, Intellectual Property Tribunal (IPT) of Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court concluded 2,799 administrative cases for granting and confirming patent and trademark rights. In conformity with legal provisions, IPT cancelled 352 administrative adjudications of the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board with a cancellation rate of 16.7%, falling two points over last year, and cancelled 74 administrative adjudications of the Patent Reexamination Board with a cancellation rate of 10.6%, increasing two points over last year.