Author Archives: Dr. Danny Friedmann

No, I did not put the protaganists in the title in the wrong order. Xinhua Online covers the story of Netac, a Shenzhen based flash-memory card producer that said is has filed a lawsuit against U.S. competitor PNY Technologies for … Continue reading →

Sarah Schafer wrote an article about ‘Microsoft’s Cultural Revolution’ in China for Newsweek. “Ninety percent of Microsoft products used in China are pirated, and for years the company battled back with its signature mix of bullying and intimidation. But in … Continue reading →

Beijing painter Zhao Chengwei sued China Unicom and its subsidiary Guangxi Unicom. Beijing No.2 Intermediary People’s Court will rule on this alleged copyright infringement case, according to www.chinanews.com.cn. “Guangxi Unicom used Zhao’s drawings on its IP telephone cards without his … Continue reading →

Forbidden fruit John Pasden, who is blogging about life in China on Sinosplice, shot this picture: ‘pure Nalencia Sunkist orange’. Of course Nalencia is not a place in Spain, but in, well … China? Pirated fruit, photo by John Pasden … Continue reading →

AT Kearney has published The Counterfeiting Paradox, a 4-page analysis on IP in China.It says that although counterfeiting is illegal in China, in 2004 it added an estimated 8 percent its GDP. In a figure the learning curve of the … Continue reading →

Kristi Heim looked ‘inside the teeming world of fake goods’ for the Seattle Times, you can read at the site of ContraCostaTimes here. In the article the difference between the national efforts to enforce IPR piracy and the local resistance … Continue reading →

February 24th, you can attend a webcast organized by the US Council for International Business (USCIB), featuring Mark Cohen, Intellectual Property Attaché for the US Embassy in Beijing. “There may be no greater challenge to foreign investors in China today … Continue reading →

Zhang Yuqing, a law expert with China’s World Trade Organization negotiation delegation, at Sino-U.S. business forum is describing piracy as an addiction. Read more here.

In an interview with China’s government website Tian Lipu, commissioner of SIPO stressed the importance of innovation. According to Tian China should shed its focus on workshop of the world. Innovative technology is what China needs and IPR can protect … Continue reading →

James F. Paradise wrote an excellent review about Andrew C. Mertha’s book, ‘The Politics of Piracy: Intellectual Property In Contemporary China’ for AsiaMedia of the UCLA Asia Institute. If you are bit tired reading about cultural and historical factors as … Continue reading →

Howard H.L. Tsang of Wilkinson & Grist is briefing about 3 topics for Managing Intellectual Property. Firstly, Tsang wrote about the continuing legal struggle over Beijing Silk Market:Last December 2005, Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court ruled that Beijing Xiushi … Continue reading →

At the DesignCon 2006 conference all kinds of silicon IP technologies were shown. During a panel discussion a question emerged about IP protection in China. Richard Goering wrote in the last paragraph of this article for the EETimes: “Larry Rosenberg, … Continue reading →

IPR attorneys say the darndest things: “Profits of Panda names not to be enjoyed by a unique person” ChinaDaily who uses the ShanghaiDaily as its source has an article about the websites names, named after the giant pandas that were … Continue reading →

Interfax China is running a story about bootlegged spirit, called Baijiu (white spirit), which can cause health problems when it is bottled with industry-use alcohol. “The State Administration for Industry and Commerce warned consumers that much of the alcohol sold … Continue reading →

“According to the National Guideline on Medium- and Long-Term Program for Science and Technology Development (2006-2020) issued by the State Council on Thursday, China will increase its science and technology innovation level by making full use of the IPR system.“ … Continue reading →

NERA, an economic consulting firm, wrote a press release about Dr. Alan Cox and Kristina Sepetys‘ article “Intellectual Property Rights Protection in China: Litigation, Economic Damages, and Case Strategies,” which appears in a book called Economic Approaches to Intellectual Property: … Continue reading →

The article ‘online piracy campaign succes‘ written by Liu Li for ChinaDaily of course covered on the contrary measures against online piracy. The article is a list of the campaign since September by some Chinese departments including the administration, Ministry … Continue reading →

BlackEnterprise.com, an African American online magazine, posted an article on February 3, of Jiji Press News on the Web (fee subscribtion) about Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries that send a mission to China and South Korea to urge … Continue reading →

According to Global Corruption Report 2006 of Transparency International, an international NGO devoted to combatting corruption, an estimated 192,000 people died in 2001 in China because of fake drugs. 2001? That’s a pretty old number for the 2006 report about … Continue reading →

February 3, WIPO released a message about the exceptional growth in international patent filings from Japan, South Korea and China: “The rate of growth from Japan, Republic of Korea and China continues to be exceptional, reflecting the rapidly expanding technological … Continue reading →

By Richard Kuslan, editor of Asia Business Intelligence, IP Dragon’s first guest blogger The world knows of China’s leadership in the business of counterfeiting. If it – Delco car battery, tiger claw, night-scan telescoping mast, Viagra, holy relic of Tibetan … Continue reading →

2004 Documentary About Counterfeiting Still RelevantHow long would it take to make copies of Nikes?Chinese counterfeiters can do it: “within 10 days, 1,000 shoes at $4 a pair.”No costly R&D needed, nor marketing. The counterfeiters seem te have given a … Continue reading →

The Wall Street Journal gives a briefing about the strained relationship between the US and China, more here. Nothing new, really. However, it also gives an overview of the IPR infringement cases the Chinese courts tackled in December 2005 and … Continue reading →

The Commerce Department’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will sponsor a seminar on “General IP Enforcement in China” on Wednesday, April 13, 2005, in Baltimore, Maryland. Prominent IP in China experts will give presentations:Mark Cohen, the IP attaché … Continue reading →

Alessandra Galloni’s wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal about Giuseppe Festa, an Italian counterfeiter. Reporting on his tale sheds light on counterfeiting connections with Hong Kong and China.“In China, where the majority of knock-offs are made, counterfeiters can … Continue reading →

IP Dragon is very honoured that Rich Kuslan, editor of Asia Business Intelligence, will be its first guest blogger. Rich Kuslan, is an Old China Hand, a very experienced consultant, focused on the Greater China market. Kuslan is sharing his … Continue reading →

William R. Hawkins, senior fellow for national-security studies at the US Business and Industry Council has a pessimistic view about China’s intentions to straighten its IP protection policy. He places those efforts in line with an ominous list of reform … Continue reading →

CAV Warner Home Entertainment, a joint venture of Warner Home Video and China Audio and Video Corporation will launch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire DVD first in China. If it would do otherwise, it reckoned, pirated DVDs would … Continue reading →

The Hong Kong High Court ruled Thursday that uploaders of copyrighted music could no longer hide behind a “cloak of anonymity” on the Internet. Jonathan Cheng wrote an article about it for the HK Standard here.

Mark Cohen, the intellectual property lawyer dispatched to China in 2004 to protect U.S. IP rightholders against piracy. Cohen is officially on assignment from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Cohen: “The question is not, is there law. It’s what … Continue reading →

The experience with the Red Guards, overzealous youth who handed in their peers to the communist authorities, if they manifested anything ‘bourgeois’ during the Cultural Revolution, is painfully fresh for many people in China. Now it seems that the Hong … Continue reading →

The Chinese meaning of copyright “Copyright; the right to copy” previous TGIF next

Peter Warren wrote an article for The Guardian about the Chinese perception of hacking and to a lesser extend about their perception towards infringement of intellectual property. You will find the latter passages quoted below. Feng Ma, an expert on … Continue reading →

The National Football League, Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks filed suit in Wayne Circuit Court on Monday naming three suspected counterfeiters and 400 “John Doe” counterfeiters. Circuit Judge John A. Murphy signed a temporary restraining order allowing NFL investigators to … Continue reading →

The Japanese animated film Sgt. Keroro is popular in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and other Asian countries. It features five alien frog characters. Rampant piracy of the merchandise and unauthorized downloading of the animated film from the Internet is infringing … Continue reading →

Remember the somewhat vague report about the Chinese crackdown at the end of last year on the 17 production lines that were making pirate CD’s were shut down and 79 newspapers and 50 types of software games were banned? See … Continue reading →

On January 20th, 2006 deputy U.S. Trade Representative Peter Ａllgeier explained the legal rationale of the first request based on article 63 (3) of the TRIPS Agreement to outline the steps China is taking to comply with TRIPS in a … Continue reading →

According to an article in CRI a spokesperson for the National Copyright Administration (中文）said that China solved 172 web copyright infringements cases over the past three months since the launch to curb online piracy. Read more here.

The US goverment has started with Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy (STOP!) and provides a China Toolkit, Taiwan Toolkit etc. Here the basics are explained about copyright, trademark and patent law and how you could reduce infringement of goods at trade … Continue reading →

In the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region 364.000 pirated audio and vido discs were seized. Ning Xiuyu, an official with the region’s cultural administration said that the campaign has produced tangible effects. “But we know piracy is still rampant in some … Continue reading →

ChinaDaily is giving some IPR related facts of last year. For example:In August Managing Intellectual Property (paid subscribtion), named four Chinese people, including Vice-Premier Wu Yi, as the World’s 50 Most Important IP Figures in 2005. Wu was also on … Continue reading →

ChinaDaily asked Beijing based Dequan Law Firm to give an overview of patent strategies, including cross-patenting and the patent net. Read here.

IP lawyers, modern warriors with different weaponsWinning a legal battle in China requires more than the will to succeed. Jones Day’s J. Benjamin Bai quoted Sun Tzu’s Art of War in relation to competitors that want to invalidate your clients’ … Continue reading →

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) is considering whether it will send a complaint to the WTO dispute resolution body about infringement of trademarks and copyrights. What’s the problem? Chinese companies have registered their products with names of places in Taiwan, … Continue reading →

At a crackdown last year, 17 production lines that were making pirate CD’s were shut down and 79 newspapers and 50 types of software games were banned. Last Tuesday Liu Yunshan, head of the governing Communist party’s Publicity Department said … Continue reading →

Dutch company Philips Electronics is to adopt within six months a new licensing system, called Veeza, to curb the illegal use of its patented CD-R technology. Veeza was developed so that throughout the chain from customs, traders, retailers to consumers … Continue reading →

The Institute for Law and Technology (ILT) conference on patents in China will start today (January 19-20) in San Francisco, see here. According to the ILT there are still US patent attorneys that counsel against seeking patent protection in China … Continue reading →

“Hong Kong customs seized memory sticks of forged trademark worth 1.03 million HK dollars (132,989 U.S. dollars). The 535 memory sticks were found in a 26 year old man’s rucksack when he entered the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) … Continue reading →

“Piracy is still the key blocking issue to developing China’s digital music industry, but online piracy is being attacked both by the government and industry music labels.” But according to a report (paid) by In-Stat there is light at the … Continue reading →

Director General Jesper Kongstad of Danish Patent and Trademark Office (DKPTO) visited SIPO deputy commissioner Li Yuguang. The latter made proposals on future cooperation between SIPO and DKPTO. The two sides agreed to strengthen their cooperative relations, especially on IP … Continue reading →