On September 14, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) released the Internet Law White Paper (2017), which pointed out that legislation related with social management of the network should be promoted from two aspects including regulating unfair competition of Internet and regulating Internet IP protection. In spite of the booming development of China's Internet technology and content industry, and the various protective objects and content of the copyright, the infringement behavior has developed into more diversified forms. Under the original law system, the legislation of IP should be refined in different dominant sectors and specialized, through law amendment and law explanations to be adjusted and improved to adapt to the current development and reform of the Internet age.

 

On September 13, the National Copyright Administration of the PRC (NCAC) appointed a meeting with representatives from more than 20 domestic and overseas music companies, including Universal, Warner, Sony, EEG, CRC, CIM etc., and organizations like IFPI etc. The person in charge of the NCAC stressed that the music companies should obey the copyright laws, regulations and related international treaties, boycott all kinds of music copyright infringement, promote the general license and wide ranging of network music transmission, and avoid licensing the exclusive copyright to one internet music service provider.

 

Three graduates of Beijing Chaoyang Experimental Primary School recently received a design patent certificate from the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), in recognition of the 3D-printed, simplified Luban lock they created, a traditional Chinese toy. The school bought 3D-printers in 2014 and offered related classes, where the students made the lock. Representatives from the school said they would contact manufacturers to help to commercialize the patent.

 

On September 15, the Patent Reexamination Board (PRB) under the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) held an oral hearing for the patent invalidation request case numbered 4W105696. Reportedly, it is the fifth case in the batch of major cases pending for public trial. The No. 201110029600.7 invention patent is held by NOVARTIS. The request for invalidation declaration is filed by Dai Jinliang. Both parties have submitted 24 types of evidences or in combination to prove the validity of the involved patent. 

 

China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS) sued the CAJCD Electronic Magazine Co., Ltd. and Tongfang Knowledge Network (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. to Haidian People's Court, claiming that the defandants infringed their copyright by providing a paid downloading service of The Love Story of a Young Monk (《受戒》) written by the writer Mr. Wang Zengqi without authorization. CWWCS required that the defendants should bear the liability to compensate 50 thousand yuan for the economic loss and another 10 thousand yuan for the rights protection cost including the counsel fee. This case captured public's attention since it is the first copyright protection case filed by CWWCS.

 

National Copyright Administration of the PRC (NCAC) released the 9th batch of pre-warning list for copyright protection of key works in 2017 according to the license situation of the works submitted by the relevant right owners. The 9th list includes Sky Hunter, City of Rock, The Foreigner, Chasing the Dragon, Never Say Die etc. The related network service providers should adopt protection measures for the copyright of the above said works, including that the network service providers who provide contents directly should not offer the contents of works which is included in the 9th list and in the release period.

 

Recently, Haidian People's Court accepted a copyright infringement dispute case from the plaintiff Wuhan Xinjianye Advertising Decoration Co., Ltd. (Wuhan Xinjianye) suing the defendant Beijing Guoji Longsheng Automobile Co., Ltd. (Beijing Guoji). It is the first copyright dispute case over architecture works accepted by the Haidian People's Court. The plaintiff Wuhan Xinjianye held that the defendant Beijing Guoji operating a HONDA 4S Shop in Beijing adopted the Wuhan Xinjianye's architectural design, infringing Wuhan Xinjianye's copyright of the involved works. Therefore, Wuhan Xinjianye filed an appeal to the court and claimed that the defendant Beijing Guoji should immediately stop the infringement and compensate 150 thousand yuan for the economic loss. At present, the case is under further investigation.

 

On August 31, 19 cities in China jointly signed and released Announcement of Joint IPR Enforcement in E-Commerce in Guangzhou, with the aim of effectively curbing and combating patent infringement and counterfeiting in e-commerce and improving the IPR enforcement coordination in e-commerce. About 200 representatives from major domestic cities, IPR administrations in the leading IPR cities as well as typical IPR enterprises and service organizations attended the forum.

 

Starting from September 1, the customs across China would roll out the 3-month special campaign for the IPR protection of leading export enterprises with IP advantages, codenamed as "Longteng" Action. In this action, the customs nationwide will focus on the products exported to Africa, Middle East and Latin America as well as the countries and regions along the "Belt and Road", including electronics, engineering machinery, daily necessities, holiday products and other conventional competitive products. It aims to carry out special law enforcement and provide assistance to enterprises in protecting their rights.