Tag Archives: automatic protection

Shall Figure of Mickey be Protected by Copyright Law in DPRK?

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By Albert Chen

Mickey Mouse’s showing up in the show for Kim Jong-un, the new leader of DPRK, has provoked the coverage of news reports worldwide. The swift reaction by Disney stated that “This was not licensed or authorized by The Walt Disney”, which in turn made the event gather more controversy. Moreover, the State Council of USA also expressed its concern on the issue.

Not limited to the politics behind the event, the copyright matters involved in the character performance is also very interesting. This brings forth the question; does the performance constitute the infringement against Disney? In my opinion, the answer to the question shall lay on the answers to another two more basic questions: 1) Is Mickey Mouse still in his protection period? 2) Could copyright be protected through DPRK and USA?

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Why Apple Store’s Design Patent Application is Not Necessary? II

The post will be published on our website for two days, and today is the second half of it. (the image is the picture of Apple Store in Lujiazui from the www.apple.com.cn)

III. The legal risk in the lawsuit filed against design infringement

Furthermore, once Apple initiate the lawsuit basing on the design, it may be trapped in the patent validity and serial lawsuits, and it’s also a common challenge of patent lawsuits in China.

1. The poor stability of design patent

Despite the design patent is granted by the administration after approval, the organ will not examine the novelty and creativity of the patent applied for it being instable at all. For example, in the design dispute between SECO and HONDA (note: the link is in Chinese), when HONDA sued against SECO for the claimed plagiarism of SECO’s S-RV to its CR-V, the defendant filed the application of patent validity, and present the evidence including the previous design patent applied by HONDA.

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Why Apple Store’s Design Patent Application is Not Necessary? I

The post will be published on our website for two days, and today is the first half of it. (the image is the picture of Apple Store in Lujiazui from the www.apple.com.cn)

By the report of Shanghai Daily, Apple Inc filed an application to the United State Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for the appearance design of its store in Lujiazui, Pudong New Area. In consideration of the fake Apple Store in Kuning, Yunan Province in south and west China, the application made this time may be the international application, and will enter into China soon to stem the flooding knock off stores. More interesting is that the journalist of the Daily interviewed our attorneys before the report, and we reserved our opinion on the application. To complete our comments on it, here’s our analysis on the issue:

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