Author Archives: Dr. Danny Friedmann

HK Government has recruited youth as informers in the battle against internet piracy, read here. HK Customs and Excise Department will jointly launch the ‘Youth ambassador against internet piracy scheme’ together with the Intellectual Property Department. Why is the Excise … Continue reading →

“Five pirated Windows XP copies were found with the package saying they were copied from legal copies used in Shanghai government bureaus.” A senior official at the IT industry commission said that this was out of the question:““They are definitely … Continue reading →

Honda has announced it will sue SIPO for its decision to invalidate the exterior design patent application for Honda’s new version of the CR-V, see here. In the eyes of SIPO the new design was too similar to the original … Continue reading →

“Have you heard about the Chinese tourist that went on holiday to France?” this question has been asked over and over in China. The answers, however, became more and more interesting/dubious every time. A phenomenon well recorded in psychological science. … Continue reading →

The Chinese stores of French supermarket chain Carrefour have bounced fake Adidas Teamgeist balls, the official FIFA 2006 World Cup ball. They allegedly were provided by Sudiman Industrial and Trade Co. Ltd, a company in the nearby city of Hangzhou, … Continue reading →

Liu Li of China Daily covered 13 IPR violators that were sentenced to jail terms ranging from 1 to 7 year. Beijing Daxing District People’s Court:Lin Rongzhou, who bought 29,800 pirated optical disks and sold 5,300 of them for profit … Continue reading →

Last Saturday it was China’s National Cultural Heritage Day. A tangible reminder of some intangible treasures worth protecting. In August 2004, China joined the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage after ratification of the Standing Committee … Continue reading →

Remember Wednesday, (see here) when a Memory Of Understanding between 23 luxury brands and Beijing landlords of markets was signed? (including the notorious Xiushui Haosen Clothing Company, that was convicted in September to pay compensation to 5 luxury brands, see … Continue reading →

The Hong Kong Standard run an Associated Press story about American, European and Canadian steps toward WTO cases against China’s protectionism. The article included this paragraph: “Assistant Trade Representative Tim Stratford told the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) … Continue reading →

The two-strike policy (first suspension, then cancellation) based on a ‘trailblazing’ protocol, see here, was hailed by Peter Mandelson, EU Commissioner on June 7. Joseph Simone of Baker & McKenzie, representing the 23 international brands, was also enthousiastic. The Financial … Continue reading →

Peter Mandelson (EU trade commissioner) spoke with Bo Xilai (China’s commerce minister) in Beijing about trade and IPR. Audra Ang wrote an article about it for AP News, that was run by BusinessWeek.According Mandelson Bo had proposed to establish IPR … Continue reading →

Hamel Manufacturing is a family business in Waterloo, Nebraska that manufactures car wash fixtures. “The company spent the last two years fighting a firm that uses a Chinese outsourcing company to produce a knockoff version of its flex wand. Although … Continue reading →

Remember the Silk Alley Market case? (refresh your mind here). On what law was this very important decision based? According to the China Law Digest, a bilingual monthly web digest, the “Assistant Director of the Center for Intellectual Property Rights … Continue reading →

After focusing on children, read here, the HK government’s Intellectual Property Department (IPD) and IFPI HK are focusing on parents to educate them about intellectual property online. IFPI and IPD made a guide called Young People, Music and the Internet. … Continue reading →

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) said China dropped four points between 2004 and 2005 from 90 to 86 percent.“This year marks the second year in a row where there has been a decrease in the PC software piracy rate in … Continue reading →

‘Microsoft and Lenovo Team Up on New ‘Pay As You Go’ PCs for Emerging Markets; Companies to Launch Market Trials in China and India Using Microsoft FlexGo (TM) Technology’ wroteTMCnet. “Consumers will be able to purchase a Lenovo desktop PC … Continue reading →

April 25th, IP Dragon posted an article about a Chinese girl Ma Yan who made a diary that was given to Pierre Haski by her mother to edit it. Haski made it into a book, which was made into a … Continue reading →

Dutch author Henk Schulte Nordholt wrote the book De Chinacode ontcijferd, which means The China Code Deciphered, about the rise of China. I flash read this title, let’s say inspired by the Da Vinci Code, to see if anything was … Continue reading →

Dan Harris of China Law Blog has an interesting post about a survey about IP protection, or rather the lack of it in China by the American Chamber of Commerce in China. See here.

Andreas Cremer of Bloomberg wrote about Angela Merkel’s trip to China. The German chancellor talked about the MAGLEV, in the story nothing was mentioned about any IP controversy. Read more about it here. On top of the complaints of the … Continue reading →

Hao Xin wrote for Science Magazine the article Scientific Misconduct:Invention of China’s Homegrown DSP Chip Dismissed as a Hoax. To its embarassment Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) found out serious “falsification and deception in the research and development of the … Continue reading →

At the “Think Smart R&D and Innovation Roundtable” held in Shanghai on Wednesday the results of a survey about the allocation of investments in R&D conducted by Economist Intelligence Unit for ThomsonScientific were revealed:48.15% of companies stated they will spend … Continue reading →

After China appointed a panchen lama in 1995, it recently ordained two bishops, unauthorised by the respective religious leaders; the dalai lama and the pope, or so to say, the right holders. If for example the religious figure of a … Continue reading →

Three Hong Kong movie companies; Hero China International Ltd, One Hundred Years of Film Co. and Applause Pictures Ltd., demanded that the internet service providers Hong Kong Broadband Network Ltd., i-Cable Webserve Ltd., PCCW IMS Ltd. and Hutchison Global Communications … Continue reading →

People’s Daily Online quoted Yan Xiaohong, deputy chief of the National Copyright Administration saying that China will not make any discount on the principles and goals on its IPR Protection and that it will be a long and arduous process. … Continue reading →

Monday the Shaoxing Intermediate People’s Court in Zhejiang province sentenced Wang Weiping to 10 years imprisonment and a fine of 2 million yuan (US$250,000) in a first ruling, because of the production of fake Viagra and Cialis (both anti-impotence drugs). … Continue reading →

The Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) and the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce (CECE) have announced they will do a joint investigation in Beijing’s Zhongguancun district, China’s Silicon Valley. They will target a certain building with about … Continue reading →

“Hebei Education Press (HBEP) recently sued Shanghai-based English learning product provider OZing and its distributors San Cai Digital and OZing Beijing in Beijing No.2 Intermediary People’s Court for copyright infringement, Beijing Star Daily reports.“Source Pacific Epoch. HBEP is accusing OZing … Continue reading →

This coming autumn there will be a EU-China summit. EU’s trade commissioner Peter Mandelson will be presenting a Communication on trade and investment in China which will analyse the impact of China on the global economy, and how the Union … Continue reading →

Dror Poleg of Danwei has a nice post about the bilingual brand names of Ikea and Aika.Read it here.

In February IP Dragon posted about Baijiu counterfeiters that prey on drunkards, read more here. Now China CSR has a story about Beijing wine stores that sell counterfeit wines. The Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce (AIC) conducted a check … Continue reading →

Wang Tiancheng, a Chinese dissident, of all people, persuaded a Beijing court to accept his lawsuit against Prof. Zhou Yezhong of Wuhan University. Geoffrey York wrote an article about plagiarism in Chinese academics for the Globe & Mail. Wang alleges … Continue reading →

The Trade Act of 1974 (as amended by the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 and the Uruguay Round Agreement Act enacted in 1994) instructed the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to identify annually those countries that deny … Continue reading →

Are there any fakes sold at the Beijing Silk Street Market, only a month after the ruling of the appeal case of the same name? Daniel Schearf made a reportage called Fakes Flourish in China Despite Government Promises to Halt … Continue reading →

Deutsche Welle wrote China Masters German Train Technology, Will Cut Costs.Transrapid International, a German consortium between ThyssenKrupp and Siemens, had designed and built the magnetic levitation (maglev) trains. “China operates the world’s only commercial MAGLEV line, which runs 30 kilometers … Continue reading →

Recently, China sent a counterfeit golf club distributor and a retailer to jail for 3.5 years and half a year respectively, read more here. If the case below is representative the sanctions in the US may be comparable to those … Continue reading →

Louis Vuitton rejected mediation against Carrefour in a the first high profile dispute between two Western companies in China, read more here. Ben Moshinsky wrote in the article for The Lawyer named Carrefour Fined in China Piracy Case that a … Continue reading →

The International Federation of Phonogram and Videogram Producers (IFPI), a lobby group of the recording industry that fights piracy, chose Leong May-Seey as regional director for Asia. “May-Seey will co-ordinate IFPI’s priorities across Asia, ranging from legal policy and government … Continue reading →

People’s Daily Online runs a Xinhua story with the title More than 5,000 companies pay for “background music” in China. According to Qu Jingming, secretary-general of the Chinese Music Copyright Protection Association (CMCP) it is required by standard international practice … Continue reading →

Liu Weifeng wrote for China Daily the article US law firm joins fight against IPR violations about US law firm Baker & McKensey that announced a year-long campaign to fight against the production and trade of fake products on behalf … Continue reading →

David Lague wrote The Next Step in Pirating: Faking a Brand for the International Herald Tribune. It’s a fascinating account of a well organised hijack of a whole company, NEC in this case. The learning curve of counterfeit producers is … Continue reading →

“The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court accepted an intellectual property case involving the largest amount of compensation in the city, the court said yesterday. China Aomei Network Co Ltd filed a lawsuit against Shanghai Holdfast Online Information Technology Co … Continue reading →

After the court decision in the Beijing Silk Market Appeal Case, read here, the Chinese authorities seem to take intellectual property infringement very seriously. Now they even have opened a permanent office to watch for any counterfeit product. The office, … Continue reading →

Lu Hui of Xinhui wrote that the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) on the quality of dictionaries and reference books issued by eligible publishing houses came into effect on Monday. “Once shoddy products or copyright infringement cases such … Continue reading →

In Xinhua’s article IPR protection faces enforcement conundrum it is written that despite the statistics about fighting IP infringements you can still buy counterfeit DVD’s throughout Beijing. “Typical is a DVD shop set up in a main-floor suite of an … Continue reading →

The Magazine Managing Intellectual Property (MIP) published its fourth annual IP in China special which comprises a full range of highly relevant articles (16) plus an editorial.You can find them here.

Within a day after this post the lay-out of China Blawg has changed; no similarities with Harris & Moure’s site are left. Compliments for all parties involved. The cosmic order has been restored.

EU Commission’s vice-president Franco Frattini uses a photograph of a ‘Chinese Ferrari’ to get support for his proposal for a new criminal IP enforcement directive : “During a recent hearing Mr Frattini surprised his Commission colleagues by holding aloft a … Continue reading →

US Golf Manufacturers Anti-Counterfeiting Working Group (comprised of Acushnet Company, Callaway Golf, Cleveland Golf, Nike, PING and TaylorMade Golf Company) has won another case against two counterfeit golf club sellers. Loo Shih Yann, a principal with the international law firm … Continue reading →