IP scene

Beijing

Guidelines issued to improve trial procedures

Authorities unveiled guidelines for improving trial procedures for intellectual property rights cases on Tuesday. The reform targets higher efficiency, stronger IP protection and better case trial credibility. The guidelines call for an improved compensation system, eased burden of proof on rights owners, increasing number of specialized IP courts and tribunals, and streamlined trial procedures.

Xinhua

Major initiative scores top results against piracy

The National Copyright Administration announced that over the past five years copyright authorities handled more than 22,000 cases nationwide involving copyright violations, including online infringements. During the period they shut down nearly 4,000 illegal websites with pirated content and removed more than 6 million links. In 2005 the authorities launched Operation Jianwang, targeting online piracy, with the focus including apps on smart terminals, online storage and e-commerce platforms.

Xinhua

Tianjin

Police probe big trade secrets case of company

Tianjin police have investigated a big case involving trade secrets of a local company. Three employees of TJK Machinery, a national leader in automatic steel processing, allegedly stole company blueprints last year, and gave them to a former TJK employee who later opened his own business outside Tianjin. The company claimed the leak led to a direct economic loss of more than 20 million yuan ($3.1 million).

Tianjin Now News

Anhui

Province betters previous registration benchmark

Companies in the province applied for more than 163,000 trademarks last year, topping the 100,000 benchmark for the first time. The number increased 85.4 percent on the previous year, the highest rate in central China and the second-highest nationwide. Anhui companies registered 72 trademarks through the Madrid system for international registration last year. That took the total number of Anhui's Madrid international trademarks to 457, topping provinces and regions in central and western China.

Anhuinews.com

Liaoning

Contributions from local owners to be rewarded

This year, the provincial government will issue plans to give awards to local patent owners who make great contributions to innovation and patent industrialization, according to a recent meeting of Liaoning's intellectual property officials. It will also establish an IP information center covering Northeast China, to provide a big data service for local companies.

China Technology Market News

Shaanxi

Inventive schools are recognized in region

Last year, 27 schools in the province were recognized as the fifth group of pilot schools for intellectual property rights education. So far 58 such schools have been established in Shaanxi, along with 12 IP demonstration schools. The provincial IP authority has provided more than 5 million yuan ($789,750) in financial support to the schools over the past three years, encouraging students to make inventions and offering allowances to students who were granted patents.

Shaanxi Daily

Tibet

Lhasa customs office pressures violators

The Lhasa customs office announced it handled 175 cases involving intellectual property rights violations over the past five years. During that time more than 136,000 illegal products were seized with a combined potential market value of nearly 2 million yuan ($305,400). Officials from Lhasa customs said they conducted many campaigns against import and export counterfeit products. Meanwhile, the office is cooperating with other government departments to share information and improve enforcement capacity.

Xzxw.com

(China Daily 03/01/2018 page17)