Tag Archives: China IPR Lawyer

Increased Penalty for the IPR Protection after China Criminal Law Revision


As reported, Mr. Jiang Zengwei, the deputy minister of China Commerce Ministry, replied on the press conference on 13th, December that China will enhance the strength of the IPR infringement punishment from 6 aspects, including the completion on the civil evidence rule and increasing the penalty sum.

The specific measures include to research the revision on the criminal law for the strengthened deterrence with more scientific description on the crime; to draft the current effective measures into the judicial interpretation; to increase the penalty sum as times of the infringing products’ value; to complete the civil evidence rule; to research the increase on compensation; to research the application conditions for the great amount, serious consequence and serious circumstance in the criminal law for the more feasibility of the law.

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Coca Cola Gets the Preliminary Win in the Case of “Qoo” against “Ku Wawa” in China

It was reported by  the Beijing News and Legal Evening Paper that the Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court (“Court”) has sentenced the case Coca Cola charging the infringement of the trademark “Ku Wawa” registered in the against Coca Cola’s copyright of designed trademark “Qoo”, judging that the Trademark Review and Adjudication shall rescind its approval for trademark registration of “Ku Wawa” and make a new decision.

The Court held that the trademark “Ku Wawa” bore no material similarity with  the trademark “Qoo”, which however was registered by Coca Cola in 2001, and for this reason “Ku Wawa” shall not infringe the copyright of “Qoo”. On the other hand, although the registered products of beer of “Ku Wawa” is different from the beverage of “Qoo”, they actually relate in consumers and marketing approaches. Accordingly, the Court decided the trademark “Ku Wawa” constitutes a similar trademark used in the similar products, which could be trademark infringement, and demanded the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board cancel “Ku Wawa” and make a new decision.

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Legal Commentary on the case of Founder VS P&G and Chinese Character, II

—Analysis on the law Nature of the Works of Word Stock

Today’s essay follows “Legal Commentary on the case of Founder VS P&G and Chinese Character, I”

(2) The Founder Word Stock is the composite works

The Stock here refers to the Founder Word Stock composing all the individual words in it rather than the stock software. The new works come from the selection or arrangement of the existing works is called the composite works. In our opinion, it’s necessary for Founder to apply the copyright registration for the whole Stock since only focusing on the determination of the copyrighted works over the Stock Software or the individual words is not enough. And such registration could benefit the protection over the Stock against any other infringement, such as to print a book or magazine in the script in the Stock with no license.

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Legal Commentary on the copyright infringement case of Founder Electronics VS P&G, I

—Analysis on the law Nature of the Works of Chinese Character Word Stock

Highlight: Today and tomorrow, Bridge IP Law Commentary will introduce and analyze you the case of script copyright conflict between Founder and P&G, and also the system of word stock works behind the case. And the following is the first half—the introduction on the case and the part analysis on the nature of the works of word stock.

On the morning of 5th July, 2011, the appeal of the Founder Electronics (HKEX:0418, 0618) was rejected by the No.1 Intermediate People’s Court of Beijing in its case of the script copyright conflict against P&G (NYSE: PG), and the decision of the first hearing was supported. The final judgment maintains an ambiguous attitude towards the determination of “飘柔”, the localized name of the Rejoice brand of P&G , to be a fine art works, neither to support it or opposite it.

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Introduction on the Regulations concerning the Capital Contribution in IPR or Domain Name in China

Highlight: The contribution of capital in IPR or domain name is permitted by China Company Law, though there regulates the proportion limitation on it. Bridge IP Commentary will introduce you the regulations of the investment in IPR.

Recently, a Company registered in Shanghai made its contribution of the 70% of the total registered capital of the company with domain name, which has been evaluated to be RMB 10 million yuan, and it has been the first company which made its capital contribution in domain name.

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More than 1 Trillion of Software Revenues in First 8 Months 2011

The China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (“MIIT”) released the economic statistics on software industry of first 8 months in 2011 on 26th September, 2011, which shows that the revenues of China software industry has totaled 1.112 trillion Yuan（1 USD equivalent of 6.5 RMB）by the end of August, with a year-on-year growth of 30.5%.

From January to August, the revenues of information consulting service and data processing & operation service has respectively achieved 103.2 and 150.1 billion Yuan, basing on a year-on-year raise of 38.5% and 35.7%. Furthermore, such revenues were up to 23% of the software industry revenues, 3 percentage points higher than that of the same period in 2010.

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How to Combat Knockoffs on Taobao.com

Highlights: Introduce the way for foreign trademark, patent and copyright owners to combat knockoffs on Chinese biggest online sales website Taobao.com

Taobao.com, the biggest online transaction website in China, signed the copyright protection memo with International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) in Beijing on 1st, Sep., promising to combat infringement on copyright. (news related, in Chinese)

In 2010, the number of online products of Taobao.com has been more than 800 million, with trade volume of 400 billion. Just like eBay, Taobao.com only provides the platform for online transaction instead of sale by itself.

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