China E-ventions
Patent News from the Middle Kingdom
Vol. 3 , No. 11 - December 2, 2003
TOPICS THIS ISSUE:
- China, Japan and Korea Join to Advance Asia-wide IPR Protection
- Laws on IPR to be Extended
- Progress Made in WTO Legislation
- China Releases EVD Specs
- China Upgrades DVD to Evade Huge Licensing Fee
Tis the Season for IP Protection |
China, Japan and Korea Join to Advance Asia-wide IPR Protection
Intellectual property officials from China, Japan and the Republic of Korea held the third trilateral policy meeting in Beijing on November 13 to discuss new co-operation and the possibility of arranging talks with Southeast Asian countries.
Wang Jingchuan, commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office of China, said trilateral co-operation has been greatly promoted in the past three years.
During the 10 plus 3 meeting -- involving the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus Japan, the Republic of Korea and China -- in Indonesia in early October, leaders from the three sides agreed to strengthen intellectual property protection and co-ordination, said Wang.
The three sides have agreed to set up an information-exchange system to experiment with electronic document exchange by 2004.
They also want to explore the possibility of sharing patent search and examination databases.
The three sides have also agreed to jointly compile a technical dictionary related to intellectual property. The trilateral policy dialogue was initiated in 2001. Japan's Patent Office hosted the first meeting in Tokyo and the three sides agreed to hold the meeting in turn since then.
(Source: China Daily)
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Laws on IPR to be Extended
The Ministry of Science and Technology is looking at law drafts for protecting intellectual property rights covering biological and information technology.
The ministry is also considering law proposals to protect property rights on large instruments and animals used in experiments related to State-level research programs, said Li Xueyong, vice-minister of science and technology.
The Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council has been charged with drafting frameworks for the proposed laws, he said.
The concept of protecting intellectual property rights (IPR) on new technology has become a major consideration in scientific research.
Scientific departments which undertake the so-called "863 Program'' (China's high-tech development plan initiated in March 1986) and other national scientific programs are required to submit IPR protection strategies before they apply for project implementation, said Li.
As a result, some projects have been granted patents. A new technology for growing genetically modified pest-resistant cotton, for example, was granted the "Golden Award of Invention Patent'' by the World Intellectual Property Organization last year.
Li said his ministry preparatory strategies for intellectual property protection will be made in parallel with the development of new scientific projects.
According to the State Intellectual Property Office, patent protection has been strengthened to spur the development of cutting-edge technology in China and has been linked with 12 key scientific projects launched last year by the Ministry of Science and Technology.
These projects cover information security, computer software, electronic motor vehicles and other programs.
The State Intellectual Property Office has also launched patent protection programs in large firms in more than 20 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions and will continue to supervise patent systems in these regions.
(Source: People's Daily)
Progress Made in WTO Legislation
China has made "very rapid and positive progress" during the past two years in its legislation with respect to World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations, a senior Asian Development Bank (ADB) official commented recently.
"China accepts the rules of global trade systems and is rapidly translating the rules into domestic policies... we are generally impressed by these favorable changes," said Arthur Mitchell, ADB general counsel.
The chief lawyer of the bank made the comments at the 2003 International Symposium on Legal Issues in WTO Doha Agenda, jointly held by the Ministry of Commerce, ADB and the Shanghai Municipal Government.
According to Mitchell, China has begun to focus on the changes that are needed in laws relating to investor rights, including corporate and business-related laws, the securities law, land law and intellectual property statutes involving patent, trademark and copyright laws.
"We have been co-operating with the Chinese Government on reforms in each of these areas and we plan to expand that co-operation and assistance," said Mitchell.
By June, the National People's Congress, the country's top legislative body, had enacted or modified 17 laws in line with WTO commitments, with a focus on goods trade, service trade and intellectual property rights (IPRs), according to the statistics with the Office of Legislation Affairs of the State Council.
China is now stepping up to make or modify administrative laws, laws for commercial banks, foreign trade laws, tariff regulations, customs regulations on IPR protection and regulations on rules of origin to further bring in line trade laws with WTO rules, according to Li Shishi, deputy director-general of the office.
In another development, Assistant Minister of Commerce Fu Ziying predicted at the symposium that China's foreign trade for this year would exceed US$800 billion, with a trade surplus of around US$20 billion.
Fu emphasized that the country's imports had witnessed substantial growth after the country's accession to the WTO.
During the first 10 months of this year, China's imports increased 40 per cent over the same period last year, compared with 32 per cent growth of exports, according to statistics with the ministry.
(Source: HK Edition)
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China Releases EVD Specs
China has released the final specifications of its competitor to DVD-Video disc. China calculated the timing of this week's major technological announcement very well. Currently the DVD Forum is trying to deal with choosing either HD-DVD based on AOD disc, developed by Toshiba and NEC, and BD-ROM, which is based on Blu-Ray disc, developed by various consumer electronics companies, including Sony, Pioneer and Philips.
China's own digital video disc format is called Enhanced Video Disc or EVD. The format uses blue-laser discs, just like AOD and Blu-Ray do, but the exact capacity is not known at the moment. The most interesting part of the disc's specifications is in its video compression method. EVD uses proprietary video codecs developed by American On2 Technologies, called VP5 and VP6, that deliver significantly better video quality with lower bitrate levels than the MPEG-2 used in DVD-Video discs (and in proposed BD-ROM format) does and competes well (and according to various tests, also beats it at least in some cases) against MPEG-4's latest video compression method, called H.264 that proposed HD-DVD plans to use. EVD will be able to use HDTV resolution, which should also boost the plans to launch a nationwide HDTV service in China in the near future.
China's main motivation in developing its own standard was to avoid royalty payments to American, Japanese and European consumer electronics companies that hold most of the patents involved with DVD-Video discs. However, choosing an American company to deliver the video compression method seems odd on its face, but according to On2, the deal was relatively inexpensive for the Chinese government. Manufacturers who wish to use EVD in their players have to pay $2 for each player to On2, but On2 doesn't collect any royalties whatsoever from discs, which is a huge benefit compared with the current DVD-Video patent situation.
China exported 20 million DVD players in 2002, accounting for more than 70 percent of the world DVD players, and it is obvious that there's a need to reduce the royalties if possible flowing out of China. The Chinese government is currently negotiating plans to set the EVD as China's national standard for digital videos and movies. However, costs are a problem; EVD players are expected to cost $230 in China, while the current average Chinese DVD player costs only $96 in China.
(Source: afterdawn.com)
China Upgrades DVD to Evade Huge Licensing Fee
The China digital disk technologies community announced that it will promote an upgraded consumer electronic product, in place of DVD, in the coming "golden sales season."
A spokesman for the community said it was hoped the new audio and video device, EVD or enhanced versatile disk, would attack the market share of DVD, or digital video disk.
Funded by the government, major Chinese manufacturers initiated research to develop EVD in 1999.
Beijing E-world Technology Co., Ltd., a front company of the community, said that it has already overcome all difficulties from primary development, chip designing and industrialization.
The community applied for 25 patents for the EVD technologies, with seven being granted patents. Some 40 more patent applications are also in the pipeline.
In addition, the community submitted an application for EVD technical standards to the International Electrotechnical Commission and the International Organization for Standardization.
Wang Jingchuan, commissioner of China's State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), said that by developing and promoting EVD, Chinese companies gained much experience in competing with their global counterparts.
(Source: Xinhuanet)
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China E-ventions is intended to be used for news purposes only. It should not be taken as comprehensive legal advice, and Lehman, Lee & Xu will not be held responsible for any such reliance on its contents.
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