CHINA INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW NEWSLETTER
Vol. 3 , No. 12 - December 24, 2002
TOPICS THIS ISSUE:
- Legal Development: China's Sohu loses Copyright Infringement Lawsuit
- New Regulation: Easier Domain Name Access
- More Companies bring in Research Work as Chinese Researchers Prove their Worth
- Updated U.S.-China Protocol boosts Anti-Piracy Protection
- China fulfilling WTO commitments
Legal Development: China's Sohu loses Copyright Infringement Lawsuit
The legal battle between China's top two Internet portals recently ended with Sohu being found guilty of pirating online pictures and articles from its rival Sina.
The court ruled that downloading pictures is a breach of Chinese copyright law and the infringement by Sohu caused economic loss to Sina.
The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Court ordered Sohu to stop its copyright infringement activities, apologize and compensate Sina RMB 150,000 (US$ 18,000) and cover its legal fees of RMB 67,000 (US$ 8,350).
The judge presiding over the case said this is the first verdict delivered by a Chinese court on copyright infringement of online pictures.
(Sources: Asia Pulse)
New Regulation: Easier Domain Name Access
With the aim of developing China's Internet industry, a new regulation will allow Internet domain name applicants to add their organization title before the ".cn" suffix without having to specify their organizations' categories.
The new rules, contained in the newly updated regulation on domain names, will take effect on March 17, 2003.
Spokesperson for China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC), Qian Hualin said the regulation is aimed to provide easier and quicker access to domain name applicants.
According to the new regulation, the market, instead of information authorities, will decide domain name use charges. Currently, every ".cn" user is charged RMB 300 (US$ 36) annually. "In general, the fee will come down," Qian said.
Domain names with the ".cn" suffix seen tremendous growth from 4,066 registrations in 1997 to around 126,146 by the end of June this year.
The director of CNNIC, Mao Wei, estimates that approximately 700,000 domain names in China have registered with the ".com" or ".net" suffix. "This is not beneficial to the future of China's information security," Mao said.
(Source: China Daily)
More Companies bring in Research Work as Chinese Researchers Prove their Worth
Research and development is a competitive business these days in China, and companies wishing to hire - and retain - the brightest talent have to offer an attractive environment.
China has attracted companies such as Intel, Alcatel, IBM, Motorola, GE and Microsoft who have found the talent graduating from China's top universities warrants an acceleration of investment in Chinese research labs. "The raw talent is very, very good," and "as good as anywhere in the world", says Mr. Yeh the director of IBM's research laboratory in Beijing's university district.
With China attracting more manufacturing based industries, transforming the country into the world's workshop, relatively few observers have noted an equally pronounced migration of R&D operations to the world's most populous nation.
Ron Spithill, executive vice-president of Alcatel, says his company expects to spend roughly 15% of its global R&D budget on its operations in Shanghai. He agrees with other industry executives that China is evolving from a recipient of technology to a source of innovation.
Industry analysts say a researcher in the US with three or four years experience in a large corporation might receive between US$ 150,000 and US$ 160,000 a year. By comparison, the same person in China might be paid US$ 50,000 to US$ 60,000 by foreign companies - but only half that at a Chinese corporation.
Pay differentials are not the whole story. Many top Chinese researchers say they are drawn to the multinationals by the stimulus of working as part of a global team.
Companies such as IBM maintain considerable internal controls, such as splitting projects into portions, to ensure ideas are not stolen before they can be patented.
Wang Jingchuan, director of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), says it often takes more than 3 years on average to obtain a patent. The lengthy wait is due to SIPO having only 300 investigators, earning a fraction of researchers' wages in top multinational labs, attempting to unravel the science in a stream of new patent applications.
Mr. Wang says the office plans to increase staff to 1,000 by 2005. But when asked how the office could hope to attract good scientific talent while paying civil servant's wages, he replied: "There is no way."
(Source: Financial Times (London))
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Updated U.S.-China Protocol boosts Anti-Piracy Protection
The United States and China took science and technology cooperation to a new level with the signing of a cooperative agreement that accentuates intellectual property protection. China is seen as a major emerging market for U.S. technology companies, however with a continuing problem as it struggles with high rates of piracy.
In Washington, U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans and Chinese Science and Technology Minister Xu Guanhua signed an updated protocol on cooperation in civilian industrial technology, scientific and technical information and policy.
The protocol expands on a pre-existing information-sharing arrangement to include intellectual property rights protection and enforcement, public-private partnerships and technology-neutral standards.
Evans said the protocol provides a way of discussing technology rules and regulations, as well as technology transfer from the government to the private sector. He said the availability and affordability of energy worldwide and the development of technology are the top two priorities for the global economy.
The 10-year protocol also covers information sharing among federal and industry laboratories, including 80 technical databases maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
"Now we are in a world of globalization," Xu said. "If something cannot be obtained from the United States, it is available somewhere else in the world. But why could it not be purchased from the United States?"
Both Evans and Xu also emphasized the importance of focusing on small and medium-sized companies.
(Source: National Journal Group)
China fulfilling WTO commitments
During its first year of WTO membership, China has strictly carried out its promises in opening its domestic market and creating good conditions for foreign goods to enter China, a senior Chinese official said.
Delivering a speech at "The China Conference: The Year of Capital," the Minister for Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, Shi Guangsheng said China had already sharply lowered import tariffs on over 5,000 types of goods, and the overall level of tariffs has been cut from 15.3 to 12%.
Shi said China had clarified some 2,300 foreign-related economic laws and regulations, and further improved the legal environment. Laws and regulations governing finance, insurance, telecommunications, foreign trade, commerce, transportation, construction, tourism, securities, funds and other service areas have been created or revised, as the service sector attracts a large amount of foreign capital.
In addition, Shi said, China has made efforts in protecting intellectual property rights, treating bilateral and multilateral trade disputes in line with WTO rules, and training WTO-savvy corporate personnel.
(Source: Xinhua General News Service)
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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.
