CHINA INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW NEWSLETTER
Vol. 2 , No. 9 - June 20 , 2001
TOPICS THIS ISSUE:
- Internet Copyright Under Review
- Paying for Music
- Intellectual Property in Beijing Meets the Digital Area
- 80% of Fake Trademarks Produced in Zhejiang's Cangnan County
- Judiciary Committed to Enforcing IP
- China Still Tops the List of Audio Piracy Offenders
Internet Copyright Under Review
Meetings held in Beijing last month between senior legislators focused on the incorporation of Internet-based works into the traditional regime of copyright. The meetings were held to discuss the draft amendments to the Copyright Law and Trademark Law, which have been submitted to the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress for a second round of deliberation.
Deputy of the NPC, Nan Zhenzhong, remarked during a panel discussion that, despite the prosperity it has brought citizens, the Internet has also provided a rich medium for copyright abuse. By the end of last year, Internet users in Mainland China had grown to more than 22.5 million. This rate shows no sign of abating given China's drive to become a technology nation.
Nan proposed that copyright laws be extended to cover the digital domain. At present, no Chinese intellectual property regulations address the issue of copyright protection for works published over the Internet. The draft Copyright Law extends the protection of the Law to Internet works.
(Source: China Online)
Paying for Music
Further to our earlier article on the enforcement of royalties for sound-recordings, a recent agreement has been concluded between the Chinese Music Copyright Protection Association (CMCPA) and the Beijing Travel Industry Association's Hotel Branch.
Under the agreement, hotels will be required to pay CMCPA a monthly fee of RMB 1.75 (US $0.21) per bed for the broadcast of copyrighted music. The hotel group is reportedly the first industry association in China to agree to pay royalties for published works.
Qu Jingming, deputy director-in-chief of CMPCA, said that the agreement reflects the international practice of hotels paying for their background music. He said the public and industry groups in China are still largely unaware of the procedures involved in legally broadcasting copyrighted works in public.
To date, the CMCPA has reached agreements with 33 foreign music copyright associations to collect music copyright fees incurred in China, and deliver them to specific foreign copyright holders.
(Source: Xinhua)
Intellectual Property in Beijing Meets the Digital Area
Recent statistics reveal that the number of intellectual property cases heard by the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court has been increasing annually at a rate of almost 40 per cent. Since 1998, the Court has handled more than 450 intellectual property cases. Of those cases, 45 have been in relation to infringement of online IP rights.
Cases have included multinational companies, such as the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, as well as an action by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry against illegal music-download websites.
China's Intellectual Property Rights Regulations do not specifically contain clauses pertaining to digital copyright protection. Thus, it has been up to the courts in individual cases to interpret the existing laws as they see fit. While several cases have been decided in favor of the infringed upon, specifically in the realm of online copying and cybersquatting, other areas involving instant links, downloads, and data base copying are still in a gray area.
China's National People's Congress (NPC), the law-making body of China's federal government, placed digital copyright protection on their agenda last December, but specific laws have yet to be passed. It is believed that China will implement new regulations in the near future so as to ease its entry into the WTO.
(Source: ChinaOnline)
80% of Fake Trademarks Produced in Zhejiang's Cangnan County
Cangnan County in Zhejiang Province is known as the printing capital of China. Last year printing accounted for over 20% of total output, or RMB 1.7 billion (US $205.37 million). However, as more and more unscrupulous printers are entering the fold, Cangnan's reputation has been tarnished.
According to the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), more than 80 percent of China's fake trademarks and signs originate in Cangnan County. In addition to the 1,200 certified printing businesses in Cangnan, government estimates place the number of underground businesses at around 1,800.
These businesses provide fake labels for popular Chinese alcohol and cigarette brand names. They also make fake identification and other documents. The rampant preponderance of these businesses is due in large part to the fact that they are hard to track down; many exist in remote mountain locations, people's homes and even caves. Also, they usually operate at night - providing them with further cover.
News of these illegal printing businesses has spread nationally to the extent that it is harming the reputation of all printing businesses in the entire county - illegal and legal. As a result, many of the legitimate printing businesses have lost their client base and are often passed over at national forums, merely because they are from Cangnan.
(Source: ChinaOnline)
Judiciary Committed to Enforcing IP
China's judiciary has stepped up efforts to strengthen enforcement of intellectual property rights laws in a bid to bring the country closer to the requirements of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Judges from the Supreme People's Court, and local People's Courts of Beijing and Shanghai, as well as those from other major cities have drafted a proposal to improve law enforcement to bring China closer to the standards of the TRIPS agreement - the WTO's foremost treaty in regard to Intellectual Property Rights.
Judges have been advised to enforce IP law in concurrence with the TRIPS agreement, specifically in the realms of web site domain names and trademarks. Moreover, together with the European Union (EU), China is conducting a judge-training programme to help Chinese judges gain advanced experience of law enforcement on intellectual property rights. So far, 200 judges spanning all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions have received the training.
(Source: People's Daily)
China Still Tops the List of Audio Piracy Offenders
The People's Republic of China still remains the world's largest piracy offender of audio materials, according to statistics put out by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Illegal recordings are a US $600 million industry in China - making up a total of 90% of China's total audio industry. The next biggest infringer is Russia, which sells US $260 million (65% of the total industry) worth of audio materials.
In its Music Piracy Report 2001, IFPI said the global music piracy business was worth an estimated US $4.2 billion in 2000 -- up US $100 million from 1999. A total of 1.8 billion CDs and cassettes were sold last year, meaning that one in every three recordings sold throughout the world was an illegal copy.
The average worldwide piracy rate for physical recordings was 36 per cent, while the Internet was almost a 100 per cent pirate medium.
The Chinese Government is well aware of the rampant problem that exists in their country and have undergone initiatives to crackdown on piracy as well as made promises to implement new laws regarding digital IP by the end of 2001. However, in terms of affecting the market, Shanghai is the only area in China that can be considered to be making real progress towards curbing piracy.
(Source: South China Morning Post)
Lehman Lee & Xu
China Lawyers, Notaries, Patent, Copyright and Trademark Agents
Suite 188, Beijing International Club
21 Jianguomenwai Dajie, Beijing 100020 China
Tel.: (86)(10) 6532-3861
Fax: (86)(10) 6532-3877
mail@chinalaw.cc
http://www.chinalaw.cc/
To unsubscribe from this newsletter send an email to unsubscribe_ip@chinalaw.cc Please include the email address to which the newsletter is being sent (not a forwarded address) in the body of the email.
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.
