1.Jilin
Province-wide crackdown extended
The Jilin government announced in late March that a province-wide crackdown on counterfeits will be extended to the end of June.
Food, medicine, seeds, auto parts and online shopping will be the focus in coming years because they are "closely related to health and daily life", said Cong Hongxia, vice secretary-general of the provincial government.
Local authorities have investigated more than 960 infringements, including 210 criminal cases, and uncovered 390 production sites since the central government began a nationwide initiative in late 2010, Cong said.
The licenses of five companies have been revoked for making and selling counterfeits.
(Chinanews.com)
2.Beijing
Authority for online sites defined
A new regulation governing online services that took effect on April 1 authorizes cultural administrative departments nationwide to investigate illegal online entertainment and games.
Jurisdiction is invested in authorities where online companies are registered or have their main business location.
In the case of a foreign website whose server is overseas, the cultural administration of the locale where illegal activities are alleged will have responsibility for the investigation.
(Legal Daily)
Court: No violation by P&G
Beijing Founder Electronics has lodged an appeal after a Haidian District Court ruled in favor of Procter & Gamble Guangzhou, finding there was no unauthorized use of Founder's character fonts in the packaging of P&G products.
The Beijing-based firm initiated legal proceedings in 2008, claiming that P&G's Rejoice shampoo violated its copyright by spelling the Chinese version of the product in a typeface developed by Founder.
The court found that Founder has a copyright on a computer font database rather than the typeface of individual Chinese characters used in it.
The appeals court held a hearing in early April and has yet to announce its decision.
(Chinacourt News)
3.Zhejiang
5.6m yuan in fakes seized
Ningbo customs has seized more than 760,000 copycat products with a potential value of 5.6 million yuan ($855,680) since last October.
The goods intended for export bore trademarks similar to well-known brands.
One shipment, declared by a Kunming-based company, had 4,800 sports bags with clover trademarks that look quite like Adidas, customs said.
Even without the name Adidas on the bags, authorities still found them in violation.
"We knew it was an infringement to use the logo along with the letters. But we thought it would be OK if we just used it alone," said the company's agent Wang Zhiyan.
A shipment of 24,000 pairs of sunglasses labeled "Okey" written in a style similar to the renowned trademark Oakley was also seized.
(Legal Daily)
4.Jiangsu
Innovation for 'affluent society'
The heads of local intellectual property offices nationwide recently gathered in the provincial capital Nanjing to discuss the challenges and tasks ahead this year.
China has entered a key stage in building an affluent society, a goal that cannot be reached without stimulating innovation and honoring intellectual property, said He Hua, vice-commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office.
He added that the central government will encourage an increase in invention patent ownership from 1.7 per 10,000 people in 2010 to 3.3 in 2015, as "it has become an important part of an evaluation system for national economic and social development".
He Quan, the province's vice-governor, said local authorities will continue to promote creative capacity and international competitiveness in companies through implementing a new intellectual property strategy.
(People.com)
5.Guangdong
Shenzhen park No 1 nationwide
International patent applications filed with the Patent Cooperation Treaty by companies in the Shenzhen high-tech industrial park topped all state-level high-tech zones nationwide in 2010.
The 11.5-square-kilometer area is home to a number of large private enterprises including telecommunication giants Huawei and ZTE and Internet conglomerate Tencent, all active patent applicants.
Its small and mid-sized companies also increased their number of patents in recent years, according to a spokesman of the park.
The high-tech park generated more than 12,000 patent applications last year, one-fourth of the city's total.
(Shenzhen Special Zone Daily)
(China Daily 04/13/2011 page17)
