International Law

"Keepin' it real fake"

Posted on February 15, 2009
Engadget, the second most popular blog, according to Technorati has tagged "Keepin' it real fake" as KIRF. In this category gadgets originating from China are frequently showed. Such as a Samsung knock-off called the Sumsang etc, etc.See their overview here.

WTO Report DS362: "Panellist On Your Marks, Get Set, Decide"

Posted on February 09, 2009
The first thing the WTO panel did was to get translations of the People's Republic of China's both countries agreed upon (so called mutally agreed translations, forteen of them)./* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:SimSun; panose-1:2 1 6 0 3 1 1 1 1 1; mso-font-alt:??; mso-font-charset:134; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 135135232 16 0 262145 0;} @font-face {font-family:"\@SimSun"; panose-1:2 1 6 0 3 1 1 1 1 1; mso-font-charset:134; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 135135232 16 0 262145 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p...

WTO Report DS362

Posted on February 08, 2009
We have been waiting even before 10 April 2007, because a dispute between the US and the People's Republic of China regarding the protection and enforcement of intellectual property in China, was in the air. Finally the WTO panel published their conclusion on 26 January 2009, read here...

Huawei Top PCT Applicant 2008; China Sixth Largest User of PCT

Posted on January 29, 2009
The People's Republic of China has the ambition to shift its manufacturing based economy to a knowledge based economy. Therefore Chinese companies need to innovate, and protect their innovations by patents, internationally.If a company registers its patent in one country, it is only protected in that country...

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Coming Up: China - Costa Rica Free Trade Agreement

Posted on January 21, 2009
After Chile and Peru, Costa Rica is the third Latin American country that is to negociate a free trade agreement with China. Read the AFP article here. Free trade agreements can play an important role in the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights...

Copycats in China: Trains, Plains and ... Automobiles

Posted on January 21, 2009
Planes, traines and ... automobiles. Chinese copycats in all modes of transport. After this ruling by the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court against Zhongwei's Zonda A9 that found the latter copying the MAN AG's Neoplan Starliner, one might wonder whether Hillmann (of Iven & Hillmann, see below) who described Zonda A9 as a "vivid example of how rapid and uninhibited the Chinese are when it comes to copying," was in fact defamatory, as was alleged by Zonda...

IP Dragon Weekend Game: Dyslectic Or Counterfeit

Posted on January 18, 2009
Ms Hannah Wood has an intriguing article about names very similar to famous ones in China. See Ms Wood's article with pictures, here. Can you guess which are the original brands? The answer can be found by clicking on the links. Pizza HuhBucksstar coffeeo Mc McDnoald'sDamaAdidosFarrariKLCLexus = Lexus, but they do not make children's bikeLokastaMak DakNaikNoklaNo more flakesPolystationSoniaPanosaonicA&G

Poisonous Optima Dog Food: Product Liability Or Blame The Counterfeiters?

Posted on January 17, 2009
Mr Ryan McLaughlin, blogger of Life in Suzhou, wrote about the death of Addie his beloved Golden Retriever around Christmas, read here. According to Mr McLauglin the cause is probably poisonous dog food. Addie was fed dog food from Optima, which is sold by food giant Mars, Inc...

Electric Guitar Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition Makes Itself Heard Against Beijing Infringers

Posted on January 16, 2009
IP Dragon welcomes a new organisation that will fight the manufacturers of and traders in counterfeit guitars. The Electric Guitar Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition (EGACC), founded by four guitar manufacturers; Ibanez, Gretsch, Fender and Paul Reed Smith, in March 2008 and will lobby government authorities to enforce their intellectual property laws better against counterfeiting...

Indian High Court Claims Jurisdiction Against Chinese Cybersquatter of ICICIGROUP.COM

Posted on January 16, 2009
Malathi Nayak of Livemint has a very interesting article about who has the jurisdiction over Chinese entities if they infringe intellectual property rights via the internet. In this case a Chinese entity had registered the domain name icicigroup.com which is similar to icicibank...

Zen And the Art Of Intellectual Property in China

Posted on January 15, 2009
I love that title (remix of perfect book title: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig, which is a remix of the title Zen in the Art of Archery, by Eugen Herrigel who brought Zen to Europe after WOII), and have repeated it like a mantra...

World Trademark Review: "US crowns China top of the counterfeiters"

Posted on January 15, 2009
Adam Smith of the World Trademark Review wrote an article that put a few of the actual news events into perspective.: The news of the US customs that the People's Republic of China is number one origin of counterfeit goods seized in the US, Chinese ministers that held a meeting (12 January 2009) on the country?s National Intellectual Property Strategy, about which I wrote 'Feasible commitments or Road to nowhere paved with good intententions'...

US Customs Seizure Statistics 2008: "China number one, India number two and Hong Kong number three counterfeit producer"

Posted on January 14, 2009
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and U.S. Customs Enforcement divisions of Homeland Security gives some statistics about the numbers, characteristics and origins of counterfeit goods seized in the U.S. in 2008.IPR seizures of goods from China rose 40 % by value in 2008...

IP Dragon Wins Danwei's Olympic Model Worker Award 2008

Posted on January 14, 2009
IP Dragon is proud and happy to have received Danwei's Model Worker Award for 2008 ("the best of the China blogs"), in the category Law & Intellectual Property, for the second time in a row (2007). Only this time the award's name was changed into Olympic Model Worker 2008...

IP Dragon Writes Book About Intellectual Property in China

Posted on January 14, 2009
Dear readers, I am delighted to announce that I am writing a book for Oxford University Press about intellecual property rights in China. It will be published in 2010.I thank all the (anonymous) peer reviewers that have given feedback to my book proposal...

All Clichés But Still True: Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement in China Leaves Room For Improvement

Posted on January 13, 2009
France24 reports in a 2 minutes 51 seconds video (from April 2008) about the rampant violations of IPR in China and the insufficient measures to tackle the problem. One big déjà vu all over again...We see the familiar in this short video: the inevitability of a visual spectacle of destruction of counterfeit DVDs; a Chinese official determined to enforce IPRs (Mr Lin Binjie, Deputy Director, National Anti-Pornography and Anti-Illegal Publications Work Group);Silk Street Market and some mini-interviews with pedestrians about fake products; An IPR right holder, in this case Ms Fang Fang, Chief Representative of luxury goods producer Pierre Cardin China tells that she is called "tout les temps" by licensees that have found a counterfeiter and it is operating...

Professor Daniel Gervais' New Book Includes: Confidential Interim Report DS 362

Posted on January 13, 2009
Who won the IPR dispute at the WTO between China and the U.S.? That was the name of my blog posting in October 2008 and gave some leaked information. But what does the official information say? According to WTO document WT/DS362/9, that can be found at the site of the WTO dedicated to DS 362 the Panel expected to issue its final report to the parties to the dispute by November 2008...

Microsoft Anti-Piracy: Are Your Eyes Shining Because of China's IPR Enforcement Efforts or Shenzhen's Efforts?

Posted on January 13, 2009
Xinhua reported that the Shenzhen Futian Court on 7 January 2009 sentenced 11 people who violated Chinese criminal and copyright laws to make pirated Microsoft software and distribute copies to Australia, Canada, Germany, the United States and other countries...

Japanese Companies Can Register Chinese Copyights in Japan: save 50 percent time

Posted on January 13, 2009
Copyright is an automatic right, which arises when it is created. (because of the 'no formalities provision' of the article 5 (2) Berne Convention). However you can register your copyright with China's National Copyright Administration, which can be helpful to establish prima face evidence, for example ownership...

Trademarks in China: Nomen Est Omen

Posted on January 12, 2009
Stan Abrams of China Hearsay fame blogged about why the car manufacturer SAIC choose for the name Roewe and how to pronounce that name. He contemplates that: "As a Chinese brand, the English name is of secondary importance. However, if you?re going to use the English brand prominently (and they do), you gotta give it some thought, especially if you want to be a major exporter...

Does China Export In Violation of License EU Train Technology Back To Europe?

Posted on January 12, 2009
Mr Philippe Mellier, CEO of Alstom Transport, the second manufacturer (after Bombardier Transportation) of high-speed trains, locomotives and metro cars, is calling on countries for a boycot of Chinese trains according to the Financial Times, here. In an interview Mr Mellier said that China was closing its domestic market;Chinese companies export trains that use foreign technologies...

Well Known and Less Known Aspects Of Well-Known Marks

Posted on January 07, 2009
In the USTR 2008 Report to Congress on China's WTO compliance on page 4, one can read the following remarkable sentence:"...the promotion of famous Chinese brands of merchandise using what appear to be prohibited forms of financial support, ..."So it appears to be a prohibited form of financial support, but the USTR is not totally sure about it? First China was encouraged to protect well-known marks, and now that they do...

USTR in 2008 Report to Congress On China's WTO Compliance: Still Not Satisfied After All These Years

Posted on January 07, 2009
One of the priority issues in the 115 page 2008 Report to Congress On China's WTO Compliance, released by the United States Trade Representative (USTR) in December is, unsurprisingly, the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in China...

Slow As A Turtle? Copyright Protection Expiration in China: Lifetime Plus Fifty

Posted on January 05, 2009
IP Dragon's feline friend has an interesting post December 31, 2008, about the expired protection of copyrights for authors that died seventy years ago, including the painter Wang Zhen (1867-1938), read Mr Jeremy Phillips' article for IP Kat here.According to article 20 Copyright Law PR of China the rights of authorship, alteration and integrity of an author shall be unlimited in time...

EU Experience and Practice Must Show China The Way Concerning IPR Protection At Exhibitions

Posted on January 05, 2009
It is crucial for companies to showcase their new products to the world at trade fairs and exhibitions. Hower, these places welcome potential customers but also IPR infringers.To make the bonafide exhibitors less vulnerable to IPR infringements and deal with the IPR infringers that also have come to the trade fairs, the IPR2 (EU-China Project on Protecting Intellectual Property Rights, 10...

Comparison Between The IPR in China Relevant Provisions Of the Foreign Trade Law 2004 and 1994

Posted on January 05, 2009
I have just added links to the Foreign Trade Law of the People's Republic of China 1994 and 2004 on IP Dragon's blogroll ( under "IPR in China Laws and Regulations").The IPR relevant article 6 Foreign Trade Law 1994 is almost identical to article 6 Foreign Trade Law 2004 (most favoured nation treatment and national treatment because of articles 4 and 4 TRIPs, respectively, before 2001 because of article 5 (1) Berne and aricle 3 Paris Conventions) Article 14 Foreign Trade Law 1994 is similar to article 13 Foreign Trade Law 2004 (the departments that get information from the foreign trade operaters should keep business secrets to themselves, see pages 15-16 Thesis)...

Message of IP Dragon: Happy Holidays

Posted on December 24, 2008
Sheng dan kuai le ????

Thesis and Publications About IPR in China

Posted on December 20, 2008
Thesis: 'Paper Tiger or Roaring Dragon, China's TRIPs Implementations and Enforcement'BMM Bulletin Paper: 'How to work within China's IPR enforcement system for trademark and design rights'Article: 'How to prevent and act upon intellectual property rights infringements in China'Article: 'How do the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong relate to each other regarding IPRs'Netherlands Hong Kong Society article: 'Intellectual Property Rights in HK and China'Guest blog for BIZZ: 'China and intellectual property' (Dutch)

Judge For Yourself: Does Online Game Maker Miu! Infringe IPR?

Posted on December 19, 2008
Hau~ Omochikaeri~!, a blog by Micchi and Nemuiwanko about massively multiplayer online games, accuse that Miu! World plagiarise characters of Ragnarok Online, World of Warcraft, Maple Story and possibly other games in their online game Aurore Blade. The blog includes two changing pictures of the alleged original and alleged copycat characters...

Beer and Logic: If Taiwan Beer Is Sold In China Trademark Issue Is Solved In China

Posted on December 18, 2008
a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_Beer"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5281214080180641058" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 192px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T8Z9f-Xvo_g/SUqkOY_1XSI/AAAAAAAAAnc/0PB43XXvT-E/s200/TaiwanBeer...

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