The Level of Administrative Law Enforcement Is Improving Year by Year

Along with the fast increase of the amount of the application and the authorization of patent rights in recent years, the number of the legal cases investigated and handled by the system of State Intellectual Property Office is also rising. The capacity and the level of administrative law enforcement have improved further, and the protection of patent right is continuously strengthened. 

It is reported that the cases relating to patent rights handled through administrative law enforcement from 2001 to 2005 showed many distinctive features. First, the cases of passing off the patent of another person as one’s own and passing non-patented product off as patented product grew very fast. The cases of passing off the patent of another person as one’s own investigated and handled by the system of State Intellectual Property Office increased 20.3 folds in these five years, and the cases of passing non-patented product off as patented product also increased 5.8 folds.

Second, the cases being dealt with relating to the dispute over patent right are mainly cases concerning utility models and designs. The cases concerning a dispute over patent right of utility models and designs account for 42.7% and 49.2% respectively in 2001, 43.1％ and 49.7％ respectively in 2002, 43.3％ and 47.5％ respectively in 2003, 37.9％ and 53.3％ respectively in 2004, and 44.2％ and 43.8％ respectively in 2005. The reason for this situation is that the proportion of the authorization of utility models and designs is relatively higher in China and utility models and designs contain less technology. The infringement of utility models and designs is relatively easier compared with that of inventions.

Third, the disputes over patent rights are often settled through mediation. The proportions of the cases concerning disputes over patent right that have been settled through mediation from 2001 to 2005 are 54.3％, 55.1％, 42.9％, 44.1％ and 55.7％ respectively. Settling a case by mediation is a big feature of the handling of patent cases by administrative authorities, which is efficient, with a lower cost and easy to enforce. The two parties concerned are always satisfied by the mediation, which represents the features of Administrative law enforcement — fast and efficient.

 May 18, 2006                                 Source: www.cnipr.com

Ministry of Railways Plans to Register the Trademark—Qinghai-Tibet railway

Vice-minister of the Ministry of Railways Sun Yongfu said on May 12 that in order to boost the tourism industry they are doing researches on the exploitation of the travel resources of the Qinghai-Tibet railway and will formulate a plan for it and register the trademark—Qinghai-Tibet railway.

The Qinghai-Tibet railway will be completed at the end of October this year and will be in trial operation on July 1, 2007.

May 19, 2006                          Source: Xinhua News Agency

Apple strikes back at Creative alleging it infringes four Apple patents

According to the news of foreign media on May 20, in response to the lawsuit Creative Technology filed against Apple alleging that Apple’s iPod music player is in infringement of Creative’s patent right, Apple files a counter-suit against Creative Technology recently alleging that Creative Technology infringes four Apple patents.

According to the report of Bloomberg, Apple accuses Creative Labs, the US division of Creative Technology, of infringing four patents in its hand-held digital players. The suit was filed in a Wisconsin District Court recently.

In response to Apple’s countersuit, Phil O'Shaughnessy, a spokesman for Creative, said. "At no time during the negotiation between Apple and Creative or at any other time did Apple mention to us the four patents it raised in its lawsuit.”

Creative sued Apple first on May, 15 alleging that Apple’s iPod music player infringed its patent right and seeking an order from the court to suspend the sales of the Apple iPod in the US.

American magazine Business Week reported that the litigation of Creative Technology is somewhat like deathbed struggle. But it may be the only way that Creative can use to save its MP3 business now.

May 22, 2006                                   Source: www.fincn.com

Hisense Electric Co., Ltd. Proclaimed the Free Use of the Trademark “Hisense” for Another Five Years

Hisense Electric Co., Ltd. (HEC) (600060) proclaimed today that it has signed a trademark license contract with Qingdao Hisense Company Limited. According to this contract, Hisense Electric Co., Ltd. can use the trademarks “海信”and“Hisense” till the year 2010 for free. This contract has been approved by the board of directors of the company.

HEC can use the trademarks “海信”and“Hisense” for free from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2010. HEC will pay 1% of the total sales volume of the products which use the trademark referred to in the contract as the fee for using the trademark from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2015. From the year 2010, HEC will settle the license fee every half a year.

When HEC went public in 1996, it had signed a trademark license contract with Hisense Company Limited, agreeing that HEC would pay 1% of its total sales volume of the products which used the trademark referred to in the contract as the fee for using the trademark. The period of validity of the contract is 10 years. In the year 2000, the two parties agreed through consultation that HEC would not pay the license fee temporarily. The contract has expired now.

Gang Buying and Selling Counterfeited Yanjing Representations

In order to make a profit, Zhang Tieju and other persons bought counterfeited “Yanjing Beer” representations and offered them for sale. The principal offender Zhang Tieju was sentenced to four years and six months’ fixed-term imprisonment by the Fengtai Court. The sentences for the other accessories in the crime vary from one and half a year to three years’ fixed-term imprisonment, with a fine varying from RMB 10,000 to 30,000 respectively.

From March, 2004 to March, 2005, Zhang Tieju bought more than 4 million counterfeited representations of the registered trademark of Yanjing Beer from Zhao Fawen and other persons several times. He first transported these counterfeited representations from Dezhou, Heze, etc. in Shandong Province to Beijing. Then he ganged up with Zhang Quanju, Lu Peijun, etc. and sold these counterfeited representations to Yang Simei and other persons in whole sets in places such as Xinfadi Market in Fengtai District. The total of the counterfeited representations of the registered trademark of Yanjing Beer they sold is more than 1 million.

May 23, 2006                                   Source: BEIJINGTIMES