BIZCHINA> Weekly Roundup
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BIZCHINA> Weekly Roundup
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IPR protection strengthened
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2006-03-13 10:22 More people are going to prison for violating intellectual property rights (IPR), Supreme People's Court spokesman Sun Huapu said on March 10. Nearly 3,000 violators were put in prison last year because of IPR-related crimes, Sun told a press conference. The figure was up 24 percent on 2004. More severe punishments also began to be meted out for IPR crimes previously considered to be not so serious, according to the judicial interpretation, which was jointly announced by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate. At the press conference, the opening of a website on IPR protection was announced. Court verdicts made last year were available athttp://ipr.chinacourt.org/. More and more of the latest IPR judgments will be available in the near future. Foreign IPR owners are encouraged to sue suspected violators in Chinese courts to protect their legal interests. "Courts throughout China will continue to give equal protection to domestic and foreign IPR owners," said spokesman Sun. The following are some briefs printed in China Daily's IPR Special (March 13-19). China recorded 664,000 trademark registration applications in 2005, up 12.9 per cent year-on-year, according to the Trademark Office of China's State Administration of Industry and Commerce. The increase singled China out as the global leader in trademark registration applications for the fourth consecutive year. The Trademark Office had received approximately 4.22 billion applications for trademark registration by late-2005. Roughly 2.5 billion of those applications have been granted. In a campaign last year against trademark infringement, China's Administration of Industry and Commerce identified 87,000 trademark violations. IPR exhibition An exhibition showcasing the Chinese Government's efforts to combat intellectual property rights (IPR) violations will be held in Beijing between April 16 and 23. Co-organized by the National Office of Rectification and Standardization of Market Economic Order, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Commerce and China Customs, the exhibition is expected to highlight China's progress in IPR protection and raise public awareness. The one-week show covers the Chinese Government's achievements in protecting trademarks, patents, and copyrights. It will also showcase legislative improvements in China and will promote IPR owned by large Chinese enterprises such as Sinopec and Haier. The exhibition is part of a lead-up to IPR Day on April 26. Pearson case The Trademark Office of China's State Administration of Industry and Commerce rejected an appeal from the publishing and education conglomerate Pearson Public Ltd Co on February 28. The authorities approved a trademark registration application by a Hong Kong-based English school in Chongqing that Pearson says infringed on its Longman brand. The Mandarin trademark "langwen" is similar to Pearson Education Co's well-known Longwen English dictionaries ("Longman" in Chinese). A school official said the application was filed six years ago in Chongqing, in Southwest China's Sichuan Province. (For more biz stories, please visit Industries)
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