Author Archives: Dr. Danny Friedmann

First conviction For Copyright Infringement Under The HK Organized And Serious Crime Ordinance

EarthTime writes that the South China Morning Post has reported about a counterfeiter named Yung Chun-pong, who possessed and sold pirated DVDs to overseas buyers through the eBay online auction site has been jailed for three-and-a-half year in Hong Kong. … Continue reading

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Nokia-N95 With A Touch Screen, The Original Doesn’t Have One

Counterfeiters are becoming Alpinists in climbing the learning curve of counterfeiting. CH of the excellent French language site Mobimania, reports about a Chinese clone of Nokia N95, called the Nokia-N95 (notice the slash between Nokia and N95). The format has … Continue reading

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Bluetooth Earphones Infringement One of Shenzhen AIC’ Top 10 IP Cases 2006

The Southern Daily of March 13, reports (in Chinese) that the Shenzhen Administration for Industry and Commerce (AIC) announced the top 10 Intellectual Property Protection Cases for the year 2006 in Shenzhen on 12 March 2007. The cases have involved … Continue reading

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Hong Kong Customs And The Diminishing Marginal Effectivity of Enforcement Actions

Peter Ollier of Managing IP engaged in participatory journalism by following a team of Hong Kong customs for three days. Ollier’s conclusion is that that the approach of Hong Kong’s customs by ‘frequent and repeated raids’ has been rather succesful. … Continue reading

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EU Will Not Support US WTO Piracy Case: Good Cop Approach

The EU is not joining the US in filing formal complaints at the WTO in Geneva against China for inadequate copyright and trademark rights enforcement. Although the EU agrees with the WTO case against China in substance, it is not … Continue reading

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Cooperation Instead of Conflict Urges James Tunkey of I-OnAsia About the WTO Case

James Tunkey, I-OnAsia‘s COO International, was not amused about the United States’ filing of dispute settlement cases at the WTO involving China’s IPR regime. Tunkey: “Counterfeiting is a global problem whose solution necessitates international cooperation. Counterfeit products are manufactured in … Continue reading

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Draft Judicial Interpretation Several Issues of Criminal Cases

DRAFT Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on Several Issues in the Concrete Application of the Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Intellectual Property Infringement Adopted at the 1422nd Meeting of the Adjudication Commission of … Continue reading

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WTO Case Against China: Choose Your Battles Wisely

IP Dragon was away for a few days and the IP in China landscape has dramatically changed. China came with its Action Plan on IPR Protection 2007. China’s Supreme People’s Court and Supreme People’s Procuratorate promulgated a new judicial interpretation … Continue reading

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China About to Publicise ‘Important’ IPR Cases

Xinhua reports via People’s Daily Online that envoys of foreign governments and representatives of international organizations will be allowed to attend IPR trials if they wish, said Jiang Zengwei of the State Office of Intellectual Property Protection (SIPO), quoting an … Continue reading

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Counterfeit Cars, Backlogs and Economic Nationalism

The Economist has an article about Counterfeit cars in China. It writes:“So far, legal action by foreign firms has proved nearly useless. The many writs, threats, injunctions and court cases have become embroiled in slow-grinding legal machinations, been thrown out … Continue reading

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How to protect your software in China?

In China software piracy is one of the big problems. What can be done to protect software? CopyrightSoftware is specifically mentioned in article 3 (8) Copyright Law as protectable subject matter. Although copyrights do not have to be registered, since … Continue reading

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IPR infringements: Glass Is Half Full or Half Empty?

Same facts about statements made at the Global Forum on Intellectual Property Rights Protection and Innovation , diametric contradictory titles. Kirby Chien’s article for Taiwan’s The China Post: ‘US says China piracy getting worse’.Read more here. Jiang Wei and Diao … Continue reading

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Media As the Battleground in Case of IPR Infringement

Alistair J. Nicholas, managing director of AC Capital Strategic Public Relations, a China-based corporate communications and public affairs consultancy with offices in Beijing and Shanghai, wrote an article for Business Week. The author has directed the communications strategies of various … Continue reading

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Pledging of Intellectual Property Rights in the Property Rights Law

March 16, the National People’s Congress promulgated the controversial Property Rights Law that will be effective October 1, 2007. Does this law mention intellectual property law at all? Yes, it does: Article 223 Property Rights Law: The following rights that … Continue reading

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INSEAD’s Attributes Hijacked By SEIMI

Michael Backman asks in his article for the Australian newspaper The Age the question who is liable for damage of a product of which it is unknown whether it is counterfeited or not. This could be increasingly the case, Backman … Continue reading

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China’s New National Strategy On IPR Protection Will Come Out First Half 2007

Luan Shanglin of Xinhua reports: “China’s national strategy on IPR protection will come out in the first half of this year. It is composed of 20 topics and one guideline, covering system building, law enforcement, talents training and public awareness … Continue reading

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Chintellectual Property Foundation: “Paving the European way for Chinese enterprises”

Dutch IP firm Vereenigde has set up the Chintellectual Property Foundation, a non-profit organisation that helps Chinese enterprises find their way around the European intellectual property system.The foundation is organising and hosting master classes both in China and Europe, primarily … Continue reading

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Alternative Business Models Emerge In Times of Pessimism About a Solution Against Copyright Piracy in China

That copyright piracy in China is a serious problem is confirmed by the article in China Daily. The General Administration of Press and Publication announced that 120 million audio and video products and 500 million unauthorized books a year were … Continue reading

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Guangdong Lux Soap Cleansed of Counterfeit Trademark in Guyana

Remember Guyana’s Court that granted an injunction against alleged counterfeit Lux soap from Guangdong? See here. Well the soap continues. “On February 6, Justice B S Roy, sitting in the Commercial Court had granted an injunction against the importer and … Continue reading

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SIPO Deputy Director Does Not Want to Discuss How To Enforce Patent Infringement

SIPO deputy director Zhang Qin was interviewed by Emma Barraclough of Managing Intellectual Property in Geneva. Zhang said: “[T]he counterfeiting and piracy of copyright and trade marks is illegal and should be punished. We have to be trustable. We want … Continue reading

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New Technology for Old Wines Against Counterfeit Bottles

“In China and Vietnam, you find more counterfeit than authentic bottles,” Serge Tchekhov said in a phone interview with Elin McCoy of Bloomberg. In order to fight counterfeit wines winemakers are considering to deploy new technologies such as RFID, now … Continue reading

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China Ranks 45th in International Property Rights Index (which includes IPR)

The 2007 International Property Rights Index (IPRI) is the first international comparative study that measures the significance of both physical and intellectual property rights and their protection for economic well-being. The correlation of the IPRI Rank and GDP per capita … Continue reading

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Guizhou Province Drafts Regulation to Protect Traditional Knowledge

Pliny Han of Xinhua reports: “Legislators in southwest China’s Guizhou Province are mulling a regulation aimed at protecting property rights for traditional knowledge, especially knowledge relating to biological resources, said sources with the provincial bureau of intellectual property right.” Read … Continue reading

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Alibaba Sued By Music Companies Over Yahoo! China’s Alleged Copyright Infringements

Li Xinran of the Shanghai Daily reports about Alibaba, operator of Yahoo China (in 2005 Alibaba bought Yahoo! China, then Yahoo! bought 40 percent of Alibaba) , who has been sued by eleven music companies, because Yahoo! China allegedly provided … Continue reading

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“Videos with ‘copyright challenging character’ most popular”

Netanel Jacobsson is a Swede living in Israel running Maxthon, a company that developes a browser in China (which reached 62 million dollars in one and a half year without marketing). Jacobsson’s last two blogs are about the Piper Jaffray’s … Continue reading

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Dance Copyright Infringemement Case: Thousand-hand Bodhisattva

September 30, 2006 Coldness Kwan wrote an article for the China Daily about a dance copyright infringement case. The dance is the Thousand-hand Bodhisattva dance, see it on YouTube here. “Mao Difang, 71-year-old retired dance director, filed a lawsuit suing … Continue reading

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Beijing No.2 Intermediate People’s Court’s Illuminating Ruling About Copyrightable Lamps

US based Fine Art Lamps filed a civil lawsuit with the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Court against both the Zhongshan Great Beam Lighting and the Beijing Great Beam Lighting for infringement of its copyright in its catalogs and lamps in … Continue reading

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“Lax IPR Keeps Chinese Companies Lazy In Terms of R&D”

BusinessWeek runs an article of Associated Press about the ‘Study on the Future Opportunities and Challenges in EU-China Trade and Investment Relations 2006-2010’ prepared by Philip Bartley of the Emerging Markets Group consultancy, for the European Commission. Bartley said that … Continue reading

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Trademark Infringements Illustrated: SQNY, GHANEL, HIKE, AVIVAS etc

Chris Hong of Aspire, Perspire, Attain links to pictures of goods that obivously infringe trademarks, at CRI Online here.

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BCG Report Beyond the Great Wall: Intellectual Property Strategies for Chinese Companies

January 2007, Vladislav Boutenko, David C. Michael and Collins Qian of the Boston Consulting Group published the report: Beyond the Great Wall: Intellectual Property Strategies for Chinese compenies. Head tip to Brian Schwarz’ China Challenges. The report distinguishes five phases … Continue reading

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TRIPs Council: China Advocates Disclosure Requirement, is Against Making Enforcement A Permanent Agenda Issue

Bridges of ICTSD gives excellent weekly trade news digests about TRIPs etc. “At the 13 February meeting of the TRIPs Council, the group of developing countries — Brazil, China, Colombia, Cuba, India, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand, Tanzania, Ecuador and South Africa … Continue reading

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Deadline Submissions for Special Provincial Review of IPR in China Approaches

February 26, before 5 pm is the deadline for public comments concerning the locations and issues that should be the focus of a special provincial review of IPR in China. April 28, 2006 the USTR released its annual Special 301 … Continue reading

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Technology Transfers: After the Maglev China Got An Appetite For the Shinkansen Bullet Train

Remember Germany’s consortium Transrapid International who designed and built the Maglev trains in China? See Intellectual Property of German Train Gone with the Wind. China ‘digested’ the technology pretty fast to come up with its own version of this train. … Continue reading

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Chinese Copyright Pirate created interest in subject of Intellectual Property for Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate

Joseph Stiglitz, 2001 Nobel laureate in economics and professor at Columbia University delivered the 6th annual Meredith and Kip Frey Lecture in Intellectual Property Friday at the School of Law of Duke University. Naureen Khan wrote for The Chronicle: “He … Continue reading

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Wragge & Co and Graf von Westphalen Open Up Shop in Hong Kong and Guangzhou

Vanessa Arora of the TheLawyer.com wrote that UK law firm Wragge & Co together with German ally Graf von Westphalen will launch a firm in Hong Kong and in Guangzhou. Wragge’s IP specialist Gordon Harris will spend its time in … Continue reading

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Sino-US relationship about IPR enforcement: New Cyclus of Threats and Reassurances

Karan Bhatia, deputy US trade representative said: “Last October, we informed China we would be filing such a case, but then agreed to hold off, with the support of US industry, when China asked for further bilateral discussion. If it … Continue reading

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Gong Xi Fa Cai!/Kung Hei Fat Choi!

IP Dragon wishes you an happy and prosperous Chinese New Year!

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Forum Shoppers: Do Not Forget to Forget to Send a Cease and Desist Letter

I found ‘Forum Shopping Comes to China’ one of the clearest articles of China IP Focus 2006 of Managing Intellectual Property. It is written by Benjamin Bai, Tony Chen, Xiang Wang, Peter Wang and research of Lisheng Hao. All, except … Continue reading

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If it Looks Like a Hummer, Sounds Like a Hummer, Drinks Like a Hummer …

An anonymous writer of Washington Wire of the Wall Street Journal quoted US vice-president Dick Cheney saying: “I remember being over there once, meeting with a group of American businessmen in Shanghai….” the vice president said. And they were telling … Continue reading

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IP Specialist Xiang Wang Transfers From Jones Day to Orrick

Dr. Xiang Wang, formerly co-head of Jones Day’s Mainland China IP practice, will lead Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP’s China IP practice at their Beijing Office. Read more here.

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Welcome I-OnAsia as Advertiser on IP Dragon

I-OnAsia is a global intelligence, security and risk consultancy, focused on Asia and Asian subjects. I-OnAsia’s corporate office was established in Hong Kong in 2001. I-OnAsia has three regional offices: in the United States, Australia and Jordan for MENA (the … Continue reading

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Dafen: Famous for its Art Industry, Infamous for its Copyright Infringements

Dafen, a village near Shenzhen is famous for its art industry and infamous for its copyright infringements. Article 21 Copyright Law states that the term of copyright protection in respect of a work of a citizen shall be the lifetime … Continue reading

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Fake Mengniu Milk Found in Beijing Wholesale Markets

During an inspection by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce Yanqing Branch, 200 boxes of fake Mengniu milk have been discovered at some wholesale markets in Beijing. Mengniu is the official sponsor of the National Basketball Assocation in … Continue reading

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Guyana’s Court Granted Injunction Against Alleged Counterfeit Lux Soaps from Guangdong

Stabroek News of Guyana reports in a very detailled way about how Unilever sought and was granted judicial relief via its law firm Cameron & Shepherd against an importer of a container of alleged counterfeit soap marked Lux from a … Continue reading

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LG Electronics Brings Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Thomson TCL

Korea Newswire reports about LG Electronics who presented a lawsuit against Thomson TCL Electronics (TTE), the French-Chinese TV maker, and its Hong Kong based holding company TCL Multimedia Technology Holdings for the infringement of four of its patents. LG Electronics … Continue reading

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Plagiarus Winner of 2007 is Guangzhou Company

This year the Guangzhou based company He Shan Jia Hui Vacuum Flask & Vessel Co., Ltd. has won the mock prize of the golden nosed dwarf: Plagiarus. I would almost say congrats. Jug „Sophie“Original: alfi GmbH, Wertheim, GermanyPlagiarism: He Shan … Continue reading

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Where to Find Genuine Software in Shenzhen? “Maybe in Shanghai”

Dr John, who wants to stay anonymous for obvious reasons, did an investigation into copyright piracy in Shenzhen for The Inquirer. He and his wife went from the back alleys to the public shops looking for pirated software. Dr John’s … Continue reading

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Genuine Fake Holograms From China

Marty Graham wrote an article about counterfeited holograms for Wired News. Graham explains that as the counterfeited products increase in value, the sooner counterfeited holograms are added to fake genuineness of the products. The technology to copy holograms has been … Continue reading

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Let Your Protection Start Two Years Sooner: Filing Utility Models Together With Invention Patents

Article 2 Patent Law in China states: In this Law, “inventions-creations” mean inventions, utility models and designs. Patent Agent in Hong Kong, who blogs about his experiences working for China Intellectual Property (HK) Ltd., explains that if you file for … Continue reading

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