CHINA INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW NEWSLETTER
Vol. 2 , No. 8 - May 29 , 2001
China Brand Owners Take Center Stage
at INTA Annual Meeting |
The 2001 Annual Meeting of the International Trademark Association was recently held in San Francisco from May 5-9. Lehman, Lee & Xu hosted a delegation of twenty Chinese brand owners to the INTA Meeting as well as three representatives from the China Trademark Association. The companies, which included some of China's premier multinational corporations, represented the first group of Chinese brand owners to join the association. Fourteen lawyers from Lehman, Lee & Xu were also present at the Meeting. Lehman, Lee & Xu, in association with the China Trademark Association and the Chinese brand owners, hosted on May 6 a Sunday brunch information session that attracted in excess of 1,200 guests. Lawyers from the firm were able to introduce guests to leading corporate figures in China and the China Trademark Association and to answer any questions concerning intellectual property protection in China. This year's INTA Annual Meeting was the largest in its 123-year history, with a reported attendance of around 7,300 participants. Many of the participants stopped by the exhibitor booth organized by Lehman, Lee & Xu, the China Trademark Association, and the Chinese brand owners. For more information, please send email to mail@chinalaw.cc. |
TOPICS THIS ISSUE:
- Proposed Amendments to China's Copyright Law
- Hong Kong Teenager Arrested Over Internet Piracy
- Chinese Character Input System
- Regulations on the Protection of Integrated Circuit Layout Designs
Proposed Amendments to China's Copyright Law
In light of China's imminent accession to the WTO and the need to bring China's copyright law in line with international treaties and new technologies, an amended version of the law has been drafted and now awaits final approval before its promulgation. For a complete translation of the proposed amendments, click here.
The amendments, likely to be adopted in the latter half of this year, concentrate on the proprietary rights of copyright owners. They include:
- The establishment of "copyright collective administration bodies".
Responsibilities will include the collection of royalty payments and the protection of copyright owners' legal rights (including the ability to participate in lawsuits). - Distribution of a copyrighted work over the Internet.
Several clauses in the amended law include reference to an author's right to exploit their work on the Internet and prohibitions against unauthorized distribution of works on the Internet. - The identification of specific rights of exploitation.
The new amendments include clarification of the owner's right of exploitation by the addition of more specific rights, such as the right to reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, or broadcast the work. One change of interest is the right to rent, which was designed to deal with the rampant unauthorized rental of audio-visual products in China. The amendment would presumably give owners another cause of action to fight multimedia piracy. - Increased recognition of rights to compensation.
For example, copyright owners will be entitled to compensation for the use of their published sound recording by a radio or television station, whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes. Furthermore, copyright owners of works written in Mandarin Chinese will be entitled to compensation when the work is translated "into minority nationality languages for publication and distribution within the country". - The adoption of "preliminary injunctions".
A copyright owner, assuming they have sufficient evidence, will be able to apply to the People's Court prior to a lawsuit for an interim order to stop infringing acts and preserve property. - The concept of "statutory damages".
Statutory damages will now be available when there is no way to calculate the amount of loss to the copyright owner or the amount of illegal gains to the infringing party. The court will make an assessment of damages based on the nature, impact and circumstances of the infringement within a certain range specified by the law.
It is expected that the amendments will bring the Copyright Law further in line with international standards, and also be flexible enough to incorporate new technologies, such as the Internet.
Hong Kong Teenager Arrested Over Internet Piracy
A fourteen year-old boy, known to his friends as "computer king", was arrested in Hong Kong recently for setting up a website that allowed visitors to illegally download more than 300 pop songs.
The Head of the Hong Kong Customs Intellectual Property Investigation Group, Mr. Ho Kai-hoi, said that the website had attracted more than 40,000 visitors after operating for just two months. The teenager is reported to be the youngest person ever to be arrested in Hong Kong for an Internet-related offense. Customs officers raided the boy's home after receiving a complaint from a resident. The officers seized equipment including a server containing 170 pop songs. The boy also used a server located in the United States to store the pop songs, apparently collected from other illegal websites.
Mr. Ho said that although the boy stated on his website that users should destroy the songs after they listened to them, and he did not receive payment for access to the songs, the website clearly violated the copyright ordinance for distributing pirated copies via the Internet.
(Source: South China Morning Post)
Chinese Character Input System
The inventors of a Chinese character input system, Hu Xuanhua and Hu Bin, are launching an action against Alcatel Suzhou Telecommunications Company before the Beijing No 2 Intermediate Court for copyright infringement. It is alleged that the company used the father-son's input system in two of its mobile phones, without first seeking their permission.
The inventors claim that Alcatel, by employing the duo's "stroke input" system, breached their copyright protection. They are asking the court to stop the infringement immediately, retrieve and destroy the unsold products involved in the copyright infringement and to order the defendants to apologize openly. They have also asked to have Alcatel cover all of the expenses associated with the lawsuit.
Alcatel Suzhou maintains that the plaintiff's claims are groundless and that they purchased the stroke input technology from a Canadian company, Zi Corporation. Alcatel has asked the court to reject all of the contentions of the inventors.
(Source: China Online)
Regulations on the Protection of Integrated Circuit Layout Designs
Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji recently approved a State Council decree for the protection of integrated circuit layout designs.
The regulations, to be implemented on October 1, 2001, are designed to clarify the boundaries of intellectual property protection for integrated circuit layout designs. Included in the regulations are provisions governing the registration of designs, the scope of legal protection, compulsory licensing and infringement.
Layout designs made by foreigners and first put into commercial use in China will be vested with intellectual property rights. Also protected are designs by foreigners from countries who have signed mutual recognition treaties with China.
The threshold test for protection will be whether the designs are 'original', that is, the result of the intellectual creation of the creator and are not commonplace. The period of statutory protection provided for designs, once registered, will be ten years.
Look for an English language translation of the Regulations in an upcoming issue of this newsletter.
(Source: Lehman, Lee & Xu)
Lehman Lee & Xu
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Suite 188, Beijing International Club
21 Jianguomenwai Dajie, Beijing 100020 China
Tel.: (86)(10) 6532-3861
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The China Intellectual Property Law Newsletter 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.
