Author Archives: Dr. Danny Friedmann

Golden Combination: Chow Tai Fook and Disney

“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes,” said Winnie the Pooh. Winnie the Pooh: “All this gold makes me crave for … honey.“Exhibition at … Continue reading

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Smartphone Patent War 2012: Chinese Alliance vs International Brands

The battlefield of patents are more and more the place where competitors are vying for market share. China has become the world’s largest market for smart phones in the third quarter of 2011, according to Strategy Analytics. Some Chinese smartphone makers, including Lenovo, … Continue reading

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Hong Kong’s Original Grant Patent, Reciprocity And Hong Kong’s Future As Legal Hub

On the last day one can send his or her opinion on the patent registration system in Hong Kong to the government, you will find an overview of what we can expect and what we can hope for. The patent system … Continue reading

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Bizarre Chinese Brand Approved By Pro-Life and Pro-Choice

Sometimes it is better to avoid literal translations. This might be an example:  金 jīn 胚 pēi 玉 yù 米 mǐ 油 yóu = gold embryo corn oil. The association with embryos, even if they are golden, and corn oil, is probably not the most conducive to whet … Continue reading

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TGIF: Vacuum Cleaner Inventor Says The Darndest Things

Thank goodness it is Friday Sir James Dyson was quoted by Dan Milmo in the Guardian, here, saying: “They are running the risk of being expelled from the WTO. They are creating an unlevel playing field by taking our technology and … Continue reading

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Will the iPad Trademark Be Apple’s Forbidden Fruit?

Must Apple resellers in Dongmen, Shenzhen stop selling iPads?Photo: Danny Friedmann Kathrin Hille wrote for the Financial Times (FT) that (mother company) Proview Electronics of Taiwan agreed to sell Apple the “global trademark” for the iPad name for 35,000 UK … Continue reading

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Chongqing Chaotianmen Different From Singapore Marina Sands Bay Architecture

In Chongqing, at Chaotianmen, at the Jiefangbei peninsula where the Yangtze and Jialing rivers come together, the complex designed by architect Moshe Safdie will be build. It is “an almost literal copy of their Marina Sands Bay scheme in Singapore”, according … Continue reading

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China Wants Legally-Binding Climate Agreement, But Has Many Demands

The degradation of the environment is China’s biggest challenge. Remember March of this year (2011), when the Chinese government released its 12th Five-Year Plan it emphasised sustainable economic growth and came up with policy objectives and quantitative targets that foster … Continue reading

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Think IP Strategy Workshop 23 November 2011 Shanghai

By Mathijs van Basten Batenburg On this early morning (November 23, 2011) I visited a workshop that the consultancy “Think IP Strategy” (TIS) was so kind to provide in Shanghai. The audience consisted mainly of IP counsels of larger corporations … Continue reading

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Outsmart the Outlaw

“The Art of Strategy”By Michiel Tjoe-Awie For today (November 24) Danny Friedmann has asked me to attend a workshop in Beijing that focuses on protecting patents. The presentation is hold by Duncan Bucknell (CEO) and Shang A Peng from “Think … Continue reading

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Patents, Trade and Innovation in China, December 13, 2011 George Washington Law School

George Washington University Law School and Fordham Law School have organised a public discussion on “Patents, Trade and Innovation in China.” The goal is conveying practical Strategies for engaging China. When: December 13, 2011  Where: George Washington Law School. Who … Continue reading

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Shenzhen Intellectual Property Index Starts Before Hong Kong’s

Race has only just begun, everything is still possible… Congratulations to Shenzhen with its own IP Index. There is a fierce competition going on between Asian cities to become the IP hub of Asia. And have your own IP index is … Continue reading

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Hu in Honolulu: Reform into Open Green Innovative Economy

During the CEO summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Honolulu on November 12, China’s president Hu Jintao announced 4 points to continue economic growth. All points are relevant to intellectual property rights. deepen economic structural reform; grow a green … Continue reading

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Is American Superconductor Fighting Chinese Windmills?

Don Quixote:      “Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho,                thirty or forty hulking giants?” Sancho Panza:  “What giants?” In Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes’ masterpiece (1605 part I, 1615 part II) … Continue reading

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Think IP Strategy Has A Free Seminar in Shanghai and Beijing

Think IP Strategy has two promising events: November 23 in Shanghai November 24 in Beijing Three topics will be dealt with:– Building a first class IP Strategy for a Product;– Establishing Global IP Freedom of Action to Compete on the … Continue reading

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Crazy Copyright Infringement Or Ga Ga Transformative use?

In the category OMG: Shanghaiist has another interesting post. See here.  Hat tip to Ron Yu.

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Star-struck and Creatively Challenged Movie Poster

A U.S. movie and Taiwanese movie poster both use the sky of Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh. Independently created? I have seen both movies, and beside the poster, they have nothing in common. Woody Allen’s Midnight in ParisSeptember 2011 … Continue reading

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Chinese Trade Secret Cases via Internet Might Be Tip of The Iceberg

Foreign Spies Stealing US Secrets In Cyberspace, Report to Congress on Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage 2009-2011 is published this October, see here. In the report both China and Russia were named as the most important culprits in the … Continue reading

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The Nissan That Became a Lamborghini Not Confiscated For Likelihood of Confusion

This Summer Bertel Smitt reported for the Truth About Cars about a Kunming barber who changed exterior of his Nissan Bluebird into a Lamborghini Aventador. The police confiscated the car. But not because of intellectual property rights infringements (based on … Continue reading

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Taiwan Dead Serious About Copyright On Funeral Music

Ralph Jennings reported for the Voice of America about two lawsuits of Taiwanese studios against funeral houses in Taichung. Mr Jennings writes: “Taiwanese funeral homes play pre-recorded music at traditional ceremonies, some of which also involve live bands and street parades … Continue reading

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You Want To See The Arc de Triomphe? Come To Huaxi Village

If you are Chinese it is not so easy to get a visa to travel to some countries around the world. I suggest that the U.S. and the countries within the European Union might want to revise their policy, since … Continue reading

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Steve Jobs on Creativity: Be Bored, Become Curious and Change The World

Steve Jobs, visionary leader of Apple has passed away. His legacy is enormous. Whole new product categories, new way to think about consumer products and processes. There is also a lot one can learn from his words of wisdom. In Steven … Continue reading

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Chinese Brands Not Cool In UK? ……… Overseas Chinese Show The Way

CoolBrands has orchestrated an expert panel and public vote to select the most cool brands in Britain. No Chinese brands in the top 20, and not even nominated. In the list of nominations one can find Wagamama, founded by Alan … Continue reading

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Should Hong Kong (Also) Get Its Own “Normal” Patent System?

Hong Kong’s patent system spinning…Whirlpool in middle of flag, a suitable symbol  So far Hong Kong’s patent system has been mainly a re-registration system of Chinese patents, United Kingdom patents or European patents. Yesterday, October 4, 2011, the Hong Kong government … Continue reading

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Countries That Spend Most On R&D: Where Is China?

The Economist came October 1, 2011, with the 2009 statistics on countries that spent most on Research & Development as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (broken down by investments of businesses, educational institutions or government), and the statistics of … Continue reading

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Research on Equipment Manufacturing Industry China: IPR Significant Impact on Transition From Imitative To Independent Innovation

The Journal of Technology Management in China (Vol. 6 No. 3, 2011, p 257-266) has an interesting article  A study of the evolutionary path of technological innovation modes in the equipment manufacturingindustry of China written by Yuan Yi-jun and Lv Cui-jie (Department of Economics, Dalian … Continue reading

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Netac President Complains About Unequal Treatment Overseas Patents

Netac Technology, the first Chinese company that sued a U.S. company (Texas PNY Technologies)  for patent infringement in 2006, and which settled out of court, expects that it has protected its IPR in all important markets by 2015. Cheng Xiao-hua, … Continue reading

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Looking into the Back Mirror: “If I Were For Real”

If I were for real, is a 1981 Taiwanese movie (including Hong Kong teams) that was censored in Hong Kong when it was still a British crown colony, because it was deemed too critical about the privileged life of the … Continue reading

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Innovative Enforcement of Trademark and Copyright Infringement by LVMH

What to do when the trademarks and copyrights of your luxury products are infringed by Chinese companies that sell these products online to, for example, U.S. consumers. You can go after the source: using Chinese customs, the administrative, criminal or … Continue reading

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Canton Fair Tries To Become More Fair In IPR Protection, Problems Remain

By Michiel Tjoe-Awie Canton Fair is the biggest show on earth. It shows more kinds of products then one can think off and is also known as “The” China Import and Export Fair. But for many manufacturers the fair comes … Continue reading

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Sino-U.S. Investment Vehicle To Bring U.S. Medicines Into Chinese Pharmaceutical Market

In the U.S. the pharmaceutical industry has proprietary technology, but China has enough financial resources and a huge domestic market. Therefore an opportunity presents itself for those who can bridge these two markets. Michelle Jarboe McFee has an interesting article … Continue reading

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Corrupting Our Youth One Sing Contest At A Time, and Time-Travelling Still Possible

Super girl, o boy o boy! In the year 399 BC, Socrates was sentenced to death by drinking a cup of Hemlock, because he corrupted the youth. In hind sight we hold his contribution to educate the population in high … Continue reading

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Chinese Trademarks Visible, But Have By Far Not Met Their Potential

In absolute numbers China might be in almost all aspects a giant. But in relative sense this does not need to be the case. Example: China has 5 million registered trademarks. But only one out of 10 market entities owns … Continue reading

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How To Cure The Distribution Channel of Pharmaceuticals Which Includes Counterfeit Products

Business Research Yearbook, (chief editor Margaret Goralski) 2011 is out. The subtitle is “Balancing Profitability and Sustainability: Shaping the Future of Business”. It includes “Problems of Counterfeit International Pharmaceutical Products” by Branko Cavarkapa (Eastern Connecticut State University) and Michael G. Harvey (University of Mississippi … Continue reading

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What R&D Is Being Done And Where In China: An Inventorisation Of Science Parks

Richard Jun Lin, Xavier Xie (analysers), Zhuo Zhang, Jerold Wang and Chris Hartshorn (data contributors) have worked on a project to inventorise China’s 1,531 provincial and national-level industry parks: ‘Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Navigating China’s Industry Park Innovation … Continue reading

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Chinese Brands in U.K. and U.S.

According to IPR.gov.cn, the first half year of 2011, the volume of Sino-British bilateral trade grew to $25.5 billion, an increase of 16 percent year-on-year. China’s brands active in Britain are part of this success. CRI’s Zhang Ru wrote: “China’s … Continue reading

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SONY or SONT confusion in Shenzhen

SONT or SONY likelihood of confusionPhoto: Danny friedmann Shenzhen SongTian Technology Development Co., a company manufacturing tantalum capacitators (used in electronic accessories) changed their logo they came up with SONT. See their old and new logo here. Likelihood of confusion … Continue reading

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Patent Law: What is the best mode for the best mode disclosure requirement?

Bingbin Lu has an interesting short paper (9 pages only) on the best mode disclosure for patent applications. The author is answering two questions: whether a developing country should implement the best mode disclosure requirement and if so, how to … Continue reading

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Does Changsha Windows of the World Infringe Angry Birds’ IPRs

The online game Angry Bird is a hit but as China Hearsay’s Stan Abram notices not only online. He is asking whether the software developer of Angry Birds, Rovio, should not become well, angry when its IPRs are being infringed … Continue reading

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Sword Is Going After The Counterfeit Source

“The Way of the Sword is from the beginning difficult to learn. Like a Dragon or Rainbow it is subtle and mysterious. Should it be used like a hacking Sabre,  the immortal Zhang Sanfeng die of laughter.“ Photo: Danny Friedmann … Continue reading

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Complaining about Taobao’s IPR Complaint System and a MOU

When the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) testified for the USCC Hearing on “China’s Intellectual Property Rights and Indigenous Innovation Policy,” April 25, 2011, it focused on the software and recorded music industry. However, they also wrote a letter about the … Continue reading

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Does Drinking GI Protected Oolong Tea Help The Local Farmers?

What are the economic effects of Geographical Indications (GIs) on developing country producers? Deepthi Elizabeth Kolady (Research collaborator with International Food Policy Research Institute; visiting fellow at Cornell University), William Henri Lesser (Professor at the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, … Continue reading

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Landmark in IP (Part I Cases)

Exceptional cases might not be exemplary casesthen again:  the extraordinary can shine a light on the ordinary Messrs Anselm Kamperman Sanders and Christopher Heath, decade long organisers of and contributors to the leading intellectual property (IP) seminar in Macau, have now written a chapter … Continue reading

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Beijing News Victorious Over iPad app Developer Minesage, But What About The Limitations on Rights?

Beijing Haidian District People’s Court ruled that software developer Minesage, who offered an iPad application to read newspapers, must stop these activities and pay 100,000 Renminbi (around 10,000 Euro).Hao Nan of the China Daily reports here that the Beijing News … Continue reading

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Lessons From WikiLeaks About Apple’s Intellectual Property Enforcement in China

Mark Milan of CNN has read the Wikileaks cable from the U.S. Beijing embassy on Apple, read here, see original text here. WikiLeaks cored Apple in China The Wikileaks suggest that Apple, in regard to the enforcement of intellectual property … Continue reading

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Taiwan Shining Intellectual Property Blueprint For China Or Wishful Thinking?

What works for Taiwan, does (not)necessarily works for China,and vice versa. During the press conference for the “Piracy Out, Competitiveness Up” campaign in Taipei (Taiwan) the chief secretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Hung Shu-min said that Taiwan could be … Continue reading

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Guest Column: Eddie Tao’s Reflections on Working for Apple, Steve Jobs, Inspiration, Innovation and Intellectual Property

Eddie Tao: “Co-design is not how Apple likes to work.” Dear readers of IP Dragon, IP Dragon (aka Danny), a long time friend of mine asked me to consider writing some notes about the latest news about Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs. … Continue reading

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Free Seminar Shanghai: Intellectual Property in China That Protects Clean Technologies

The British Chamber of Commerce Shanghai announces an afternoon seminar Clean air, clean technology and clean IPR also needed in Shenzhenthis afternoonPhoto: Danny Friedmann ‘Protecting Clean Technologies: Intellectual Property in China’ organised by China IPR SME Helpdesk. Peter Corne, chair of the Energy … Continue reading

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China’s Exports Moved Up the Value Ladder, EIU Report Underlines Dragons at the Door Thesis

Exports no longer only from coastal provincesPhoto:  Danny Friedmann ‘Heavy duty, China’s next wave of exports‘, is a insightful concise report (17 pages) from the Economist Intelligence Unit. It sheds light how the Chinese equipment manufacturing industry is climbing the … Continue reading

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