1.Shandong
Fake wine: Oak flavor, apple juice
Qingdao police seized 1,890 boxes of counterfeit red wine with potential retail value of more than 200,000 yuan ($30,000) in an abandoned factory and arrested the suspected ringleader surnamed Sun.
After working at a small winery and learning basic procedures, Sun said he produced counterfeit wine made from low-calorie sweetener, oak flavor, apple juice and tap water.
At a cost of less than 1 yuan, each bottle of his fake product was then sold for up to several hundred yuan.
(Qilu Evening News)
2.Shanghai
Rising sale of copyrights overseas
The eastern city is at the forefront of book copyright transactions in the nation, according to a press and publishing conference held on March 1.
Shanghai's publication industry bought the rights to 1,133 genres of books last year - a drop of 13.1 percent compared with 2009 - but sales overseas increased from 232 to 263 types of books, 13.3 percent increase.
The United States, Britain and China's Taiwan province are the biggest international partners in the city's copyright trade with 62 percent of the total.
(Jiefang Daily)
3.Shaanxi
New trade center for TV properties
The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has approved the nation's first trade center for TV copyrights in Xi'an, the provincial capital.
The center is scheduled to begin operations in the first half of this year to trade in copyrights for book adaptations, scripts, animation, films and TV programming.
The project is expected to boost China's creative industries, according to the developer, Shaanxi Cultural Industry Investment Holding Group Co Ltd.
A leading player in the province's creative industry, the company was founded in 2009 and now has 13 subsidiaries.
(Xinhuanet.com)
4.Chongqing
Worker invents high-tech scoop
It is now much easier to skim fat off soup due to an invention by Zou Chengzhi, a worker in the local newspaper Chongqing Daily.
Zou's patented scoop has several holes covered with a silicon gel that allows only clear broth to enter.
The silicon can be removed and the scoop turned into a normal colander, he noted.
He said the idea came to him when he saw a waiter having trouble removing fat in fish soup.
The patented utensil has now been commercialized.
(Chongqing Evening News)
5.Guangdong
IP loan collateral for gaming firm
Shenzhen Glacier Network Co Ltd, an online gaming company, recently received a bank loan using intellectual property instead of fixed assets as collateral, the first IP-secured loan in the industry nationwide.
China Merchants Bank's Shenzhen branch will provide a line of credit of up to 30 million yuan ($4.5 million).
According to bank officials, the bank agreed to the groundbreaking loan because the online gaming industry generally has high profits and income is easily verified.
Mature online game companies also have relatively stable revenue, the bank said.
Founded in 2008, Glacier Network has a number of intellectual property rights and won the 2010 Enterprise Copyright Award. Its online game Expedition ol is popular at both home and abroad.
(Faren Magazine)
(China Daily 03/09/2011 page17)
