CHINA INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW NEWSLETTER
Vol. 2 , No. 11 - September 4, 2001
TOPICS THIS ISSUE:
- BTA and Lehman, Lee & Xu Hold Trademark Seminar
- Internet Making Copyright Enforcement Possible
- Chinese Companies Realize the Importance of IP Protection
- Destroying CDs for Show
- Foreign-invested Companies Work with Customs in Battle for IP Rights
- Software Price-war with the Black Market
BTA and Lehman, Lee & Xu Hold Trademark Seminar
The Beijing Trademark Association (BTA), together with Lehman, Lee & Xu, are sponsoring a seminar on "Trademark Theory and Practice" at the Beijing Trader's Hotel on Friday, September 7, 2001.
Members of the BTA, Beijing enterprises and other interested parties, including the Vice Director General of the Beijing Trademark Bureau, Ms. Wang Yinguo, will attend the seminar focusing on educating Chinese companies about competition with foreign companies in the domestic market and overseas trademark protection.
Mr. Edward E. Lehman, the opening speaker, hopes the seminar will "prepare Chinese companies to take full advantage of IP protection now that they have a larger role in global commerce."
Mr. Song Qicai, Secretary General of the BTA, will then brief the audience on the recognition and application of famous trademarks for Beijing companies.
Attorney William Wright of Lehman, Lee & Xu, will explain filing and protection strategies in overseas markets. Following Mr. Wright's remarks, a speech by Professor Li Shunde from the China Academy of Social Sciences will discuss future amendments to the trademark law and how they differ from the current trademark law.
Tony Xing, attorney at Lehman, Lee & Xu, will deliver the final presentation, which will focus on the function of trademarks in a modern market economy, and how a business should formulate their own unique trademark strategy.
Internet Making Copyright Enforcement Possible
Authors who have not obtained compensation for work that newspapers and magazines published in the past five years can now find out if they can receive royalties by logging on to www.ccopyright.com.
The Copyright Protection Center in Beijing has published an online list of authors that are owed royalties for use of their works. The Copyright Protection Center receives royalties and holds them in trust for the authors, who must prove their identities before the funds are disbursed to them.
Kang Yi, Deputy Director of the Copyright Protection Agency's Royalties Collection Center, has said that ''Because we have such a large Chinese linguistic and literary community, we reckoned the Internet was probably the most effective way to reach authors."
The Copyright Protection Center in Beijing was set up in 1993 to monitor newspapers and magazines. The task of protecting copyrights in China's massive information industry is immense, with some 2,000 newspapers and 7,000 magazines. However, as Ms. Kang points out "only 10 per cent of the Chinese newspapers and magazines have tried to pay royalties either through the center or directly to the author."
The center also protects the rights of artists in the music industry and in the performing arts. Because the organization was founded by the government and operates on a non-profit basis, it only receives 15 per cent of the royalty payments.
China's Copyright Law states that magazines and newspapers can publish certain works without the knowledge or consent of the author, but they still must pay royalties.
Ms. Kang proudly announced that the agency has successfully given approximately 100,000 authors several million yuan in royalty payments since 1993.
(Source: South China Morning Post)
Chinese Companies Realize the Importance of IP Protection
As the time for China's entry into the WTO draws near, Chinese businesses are busily applying for patents.
Zhou Lin, an expert with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and of counsel to Lehman, Lee & Xu, believes that "this demonstrates that domestic enterprises regard intellectual property as a breakthrough to further develop their business after WTO accession."
The State Intellectual Property Office had received over 99,550 applications by the end of July, both from national and overseas applicants. This number is up 24% from a year ago. Domestic applications increased by 26.8%, up 15 percentage points from that of overseas applications.
The China National Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec), has applied for over 2,470 patents in China and 294 patents in other countries, and it currently owns 1,270 patents.
Shanghai Joint Gene Technology Co. Ltd., the largest gene technology company in China, has applied for more than 3,700 gene patents including patents for medical research of genes causing cancer, obesity and hypertension.
Qin Yilong, vice president of the Shanghai Joint Gene Technology Co. Ltd. recently stated that "owning intellectual property is one of our company's fundamental goals. If we do not own intellectual property, we would not have our own gene industry after WTO accession."
The recently established Shanghai Intellectual Property Service center is the first of such centers in China funded by the government. It specializes in patent searches, evaluation and use.
In the economically developed Guangdong province in south China, a number of competitive companies are performing trial experiments on intellectual property management.
An international symposium on intellectual property protection for the information industry was held in the province recently, which attracted many well-known companies and organizations from China and abroad.
Experts predict that by the end of this year, the total number of patent applications by Chinese enterprises will surpass that of last year, which is a good sign before WTO entry.
Mao Jinsheng, an official with the China State Intellectual Property Office, said that a large number of multinational companies will enter the Chinese market to compete with Chinese counterparts and their rich experience in patent application will be a threat to domestic firms.
He added that many Chinese enterprises have realized the challenge and are preparing for it. "That's why so many firms have been taking such a positive attitude in applying for patents," he added.
Experts also predict that intellectual property will become the first highlight in international trade after China enters the WTO.
Ma Lianyuan, deputy commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office, said that China's intellectual property organizations should not only focus on improving the ability to protect the intellectual property of Chinese enterprises, but also stress the creation of a favorable environment for international enterprises to do the same.
(Source: Xinhua News Agency)
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Destroying CDs for Show
Last month in Zhuhai, 16 million counterfeit CDs and DVDs were shredded by high-powered wood-chippers. As the machines went to work, the scene was quite festive with huge balloons reaching for the sky and music playing outside the Zhuhai athletic center stadium.
Anti-piracy officer Shi Zongyuan said "this is one of the most important issues facing us today and getting rid of pirated CDs will give us a much-needed economic boost."
China is known to perform such demonstrations every 2 or 3 months to show they are serious about stopping the booming piracy industry. However, it is usually on a much smaller scale.
Although the events are heavily attended and given much coverage by State media, the audience targeted is mainly made up of China's foreign business partners. Foreign producers of music, film and software claim Chinese piracy steals a large portion of their business.
Lately, because of China's almost-inevitable membership in the WTO, the crackdowns have occurred more often. The negative publicity concerning piracy recedes after a crackdown, but will usually resurface after a few months.
Last month, investigations into the manufacture and sale of fake Rolex, Seiko and Kodak products were reported. Fake cigarettes, fake brand-name rice, even fake soy sauce has been seized and reported due to the recent crackdowns.
This recent event, which had the spirit of a communist rally, took place in Zhuhai, a major manufacturing base for exporting. It is also considered the heartland of Chinese piracy. It was reported that people were shipped in from various parts of the country to watch the destruction.
Mike Ellis, vice-president of the Los Angeles based Motion Picture Association of America, admitted that such a show was geared mostly for publicity. However, he also added that "you get the message out there that what people are doing is wrong."
(Source: South China Morning Post)
Foreign-invested Companies Work with Customs in Battle for IP Rights
The General Administration of Customs invited representatives from 72 foreign-invested companies to a discussion on intellectual property protection in Zhejiang Province, east China.
During last Wednesday's discussion, officials from Ningbo and Hangzhou customs, two main checkpoints liable for preventing counterfeit goods from entering and exiting Zhejiang and other eastern provinces, agreed that they have to make concerted efforts within business circles to protect IP rights and fight counterfeit goods.
Representatives from Gillette and Nike briefed the customs officials on how to identify counterfeit products and expressed gratitude for the customs' sustained efforts in protecting IP rights.
Earlier this year, Ningbo customs seized counterfeit Gillette and Nike products destined for export. Officials say they have cracked 22 such cases since last year, involving RMB $7.25 million (US $873,000) in total.
A source from the China Association of Foreign-Funded Enterprises said the joint effort between the customs and the enterprises is a positive move in the fight against counterfeit goods, which are causing huge economic losses to China every year.
(Source: Xinhuanet)
Software Price-war with the Black Market
Software developers and retailers have begun a campaign to persuade consumers to use low-priced licensed software, instead of pirated versions easily bought on the streets.
Two hundred software developers and 3,000 software retailers organized a campaign beginning on August 19 to market software at a price reduced to around RMB 5 or RMB 10 (US $0.60 and US$ 1.21).
One of the biggest software retailers in China, Zhengpu Sales Network, plans to spend RMB 100 million (US $12.1 million) to market 1,000 types of licensed software products every year. It is hoped that this will bring sales up to 10 million packages, and raise the market share of licensed software from 10 per cent to 40 per cent of all software sales.
Because pirated versions of software are not only cheaper, but also easier to find, many computer users prefer to buy software from the black market. The popularity of pirated software keeps the sales of licensed software at an extremely low level.
A pirated software CD can usually be bought for RMB 7 (US$ 0.85).
(Source: Chinaonline)
Lehman Lee & Xu
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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.
