1. Shandong
Counterfeit paint raid
Local and provincial police from Hebei, Liaoning and Jiangsu provinces have cracked down on 10 groups making counterfeited paint with a potential value of more than 20 million yuan ($3.3 million). They raided 15 locations, arrested 12 suspects and found more than 1,000 buckets of fake paint and 2 million tons of material. Police in Jinan, provincial capital of Shandong, first found two suspects in April selling faked paint including Nippon and Dulux.
Dazhong Daily
2. Anhui
Invention patents soar
The provincial intellectual property office recently announced that 1,719 invention patents from the province were granted in the first five months of the year, a year-on-year increase of 67.7 percent, the highest growth rate across China. In the same period, 8,383 invention patent applications were filed, ranking the seventh nationwide, up 72.2 percent. Last year the government issued policies to shift its focus from sponsorship of patent applications to granted inventions.
Anhui Daily
3. Shanghai
Latest Apple lawsuit
The First Intermediate People's Court of Shanghai last week started to hear the lawsuit between Apple Inc and local high-tech company Zhizhen Network Technology, which claims that Apple's Siri violates its rights to voice technology called "Xiao i Robot". The Chinese company said that its software was granted invention patent in 2006, and Siri, which debuted in 2011, uses similar technologies. Apple has countered that it should not be subject to Chinese law because the server for Siri is outside China. An attorney for Zhizhen said it may take four or five months for the court to render a judgment.
Beijing times
4. Sichuan
Zigong new IP pilot city
Zigong was recently approved as a new intellectual property pilot city by the State Intellectual Property Office. According to local officials, the city has led the province in IP tasks for 10 consecutive years. It now has six State-level and 31 provincial innovation centers as well as 47 national high-tech companies. Since 2012, the value generated by patent commercialization in the city has increased more than 6.6 billion yuan. Authorities said they will further improve services and develop an IP trading market serving the whole country in the next three years.
West China City Daily
5. Zhejiang
31,000 fake watches
One of the province's largest intellectual property cases was filed on July 2 involving 31,000 counterfeited watches that had total potential retail value of more than 2.3 million yuan. The shipment was seized on June 21 by customs in Jiaxing. In 62 cardboard boxes declared to contain doghouses and cleaning tools, officers found the array of watches with faked international brands, including 11,000 labeled as Guess, 3,000 as Tag Heuer and 2,000 as Rolex.
www.gov.cn
(China Daily 07/10/2013 page17)
