Xie Lin Gives Leading Links To IPR in China in Chinese

My colleague and friend, the copyright in China scholar Xie Lin 謝琳, gives us a great overview of websites about IP in China in Chinese:
(1) For unofficial English versions of laws and regulations: Law Info China;
(2) For cases (which are judgments): IPR China Court;
(3) For news and comments: China IPR; the latter one is the website from Dr. Jiang Zhipei;

The Chinese versions are far more comprehensive than the English ones.

Xie Lin is also one of the great bloggers at
https://webmail.cuhk.edu.hk/horde/util/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.law.harvard.edu%2Fdonnie%2F&Horde=5tm8c30ougloe6mjrrv8l25so5 , a site founded by Donnie, Hao Dong, who now works for Baker & McKenzie;
https://webmail.cuhk.edu.hk/horde/util/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.sina.com.cn%2Fipwangqian&Horde=5tm8c30ougloe6mjrrv8l25so5, professor Wang Qian's blog;
https://webmail.cuhk.edu.hk/horde/util/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fengxiaoqingip.com%2Fenglishlaw%2Findex.html&Horde=5tm8c30ougloe6mjrrv8l25so5, professor Feng Xiaoqing's blog, very
comprehensive.

Of course, the websites from the official government departments:
https://webmail.cuhk.edu.hk/horde/util/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sipo.gov.cn%2Fsipo_English%2F&Horde=5tm8c30ougloe6mjrrv8l25so5
https://webmail.cuhk.edu.hk/horde/util/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2F202.108.90.115%2Fenglish%2Findex_e.asp&Horde=5tm8c30ougloe6mjrrv8l25so5
https://webmail.cuhk.edu.hk/horde/util/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.saic.gov.cn%2Fenglish%2Findex.html&Horde=5tm8c30ougloe6mjrrv8l25so5
https://webmail.cuhk.edu.hk/horde/util/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncac.gov.cn%2Fcms%2Fhtml%2F205%2Findex.html&Horde=5tm8c30ougloe6mjrrv8l25so5

If you want more informtion, you may refer to this
website https://webmail.cuhk.edu.hk/horde/util/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fengxiaoqingip.com%2F&Horde=5tm8c30ougloe6mjrrv8l25so5, at the bottom, it recommends good
websites.

Thank you Xie Lin.

假 Jia and the Schwindlerrepublic China

Kai Strittmatter wrote 'Gebrauchsanweisung für China' which means User guide for China in German (2004/2008). Especially the chapter "假 Jia, Alles gefälscht. Oder: Die Schwindlerrepublik" (pp 175-186) is an interesting chapter about all aspects of "the People's Republic of Cheats", which is explanation the Far Eastern Economic Review (a high quality magazine that no longer exists) came up with for the abbreviation of PRC as Strittmatter makes clear.

It includes the following anecdote which I paraphrase here:

A farmer who bought from his last money some seeds. But how long he waited no plant would grow. The seeds were fake. The farmer did not want to live any longer and committed suicide by drinking rat poison. But nothing happened, the rat poison was fake. The whole family of the farmer was very happy and they opened a bottle of good rice wine. The farmer went down, because he fell victim to the lethal fake rice wine.

Window Is Closing For Pirated Software In China: Qingdao Government Gives Example

Chinese government agencies were well known for using pirated software. By the end of May all illegal software needs to be replaced. The city of Qingdao (province Shandong) will be 10 months ahead of the central government's ban on pirated copyright. Read more here.

China Cockpit: Flood the Market With Counterfeits To Fight Inflation

Imagine China Government Airlines, where the Chinese government is trying to pilot its citizens from poverty to wealth in a way that those sitting in different classes (such as the superpremium class with private beds and the class where you have to stand all flight)will stay harmonious. It's interesting to think what decisions the pilots make in the cockpit.

To make a country the size of China and with such an immense contrast between rich and poor develop in the right direction seems to be a gargantuan challenge. You can say a lot about the Chinese government, but they did lift millions out of poverty during decades of economic growth. How did you they manage this. Western style democracies are marked by sudden changes in policies every time the politic colour changes in cabinet. China's economic policies are much more long term and have proven to be able to absorb bumps in the road because of the financial crisis.

Are the central and local authorities doing what they need to do? Or is China having a lot of luck? Sometimes I think that the central authority is coordinating the decisions of all the ministries in a way that might be compared to the decisions made in a cockpit.

During president Hu's visit to the U.S. (January 18-21, 2011) the relative worth of the Renminbi in relation to the U.S. dollar was discussed. But as president Obama pointed out also other issues unrelated to currency "that must make sure that our trading relation is fair and a win-win situation as opposed a win-lose situation." Obama made a reference to progress in the field of government procurement process, which is getting more open and fair to US businesses according.

Obama: "Some of [the issues unrelated to currency] has to do with intellectual property protection. So we were just in a meeting with business leaders and Steve Balmer of Microsoft pointed out that their estimate is that only one customer in every ten of their products is actually paying for in China. And so can we get better protection? Because that is an area where the U.S. excels: intellectual property and high added value products and services. "And the Chinese government has, to its credit, taken step to better enforce intellectual property We got further agreement as a consequence of his state visit and I think president Hu acknowledges that more needs to be done."

However, if one peek into China's cockpit, you might get a different picture. In order to keep China's plane on course it might loosen up on IPR enforcement: Because China's currency is not freely convertible, there is no direct link between the money in the country and the value of the currency. The money supply in China is too high, therefore inflation is on the rise. So in order to not make the products more expensive, one can flood the market with very low cost products in high volumes: counterfeit and pirated goods could be candidates for fighting inflation. To stimulate China's domestic demand, as the U.S. recommends, will only increase China's inflation.

Around 35 minutes Obama is talking about IPR.

What do you think?

Featured Blog of the Week: China Media News

Torsten Weise, who is based in Berlin, translates headlines and news of Chinese media on media into English on this interesting blog called China Media News, which he started in May 2010. Mr Weise gives advice to publishers (Weise Verlagsberatung) that want to be active on the Chinese market. Those interested into media and the protection and enforcement of copyright in China could benefit from reading his blog, next to the always excellent Danwei.com by Jeremy Goldkorn in Beijing and superniche blog about copyright in China site of my friend Rogier Creemer, China Copyright and Media, straight from Maastricht Univerity.

New Game: Claim To Have Organised A Conference You Did Not, Say Sorry And Pay RMB 1

Howell International Trade Fair Ltd. (Howell) organised events in China such as: China Game Developers Conference and ChinaJoy. Then United Business Media LLC (UBM), who organised the Game Developers Conference in the US, claimed to "have hosted alone or together with IDG the China Game Developers Conference 2007."

Howell sued UBM in 2009 before the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court. Because UBM did not register trademarks in China for Game Developers Conference or GDC, in First Instance the court ruled that UBM's claims on exclusive rights constitute dissemination of false propaganda. The penalty for dissemination of false propaganda in this case is interesting.

"UBM shall, within thirty days after the judgement becomes effective, publish an announcement in the magazine Computer Information World acknowledging UBM's anti-competitive business practices so as to eliminate the ill effects thereof and, also, within ten days after the judgement becomes effective, compensate Howell for damages in the nominal amount of RMB 1."

Sorry and RMB 1 ... WTF?

Is such a penalty a deterrent for other conference organizers for claiming events they did not organize? What conference organizers could take away from this judgment is that registering the name of your events as trademarks in the jurisdictions where you want to be active is a good idea.

Read the Sun Herald article here.

100 Percent Australian made UGG Boots From China

Instead of the near undetectable counterfeit eggs, some counterfeit products are easier to determine. See the video, where counterfeiters made some mistakes, here.

The buyer of the fake boots was lured into buying the booths because it said: "100 percent Australian made". And the label said "Made in New Zealand" (see picture). That information was wrong, because as the eBay Guide 'How to tell fake UGG booths' tells you real UGG Australia booths are made in China too.

At the UGG Australia site you can fill in a URL at a search bar to see whether UGG Australia can guarantee that the products sold from that place are genuine, see here. That does not solve the problem for parallel import or discounts via other sites.

You Cannot Buy A Real Egg In China Without Breaking it

"When you start with a portrait and try to find pure form by abstracting more and more, you must end up with an egg." If we paraphrase Pablo Picasso's phrase into: When you want to find the purest form of counterfeit product in China by abstracting more and more, you must end up with an egg.

1. it is even done for marginal profits or lucrative (estimated 300-400 percent profit rate for fake detergent, read here);

2. it can be deadly;

3. it is very hard to detect;

4. the authorities grapple with the problem.

Here we are: these problems unfortunately apply to most counterfeit products.

Fake egg school

Sasha Matuszak wrote a great All Voices article last year about a problem that has only increased the year after she wrote it: fake eggs are a widespread problem in China, not only in the less affluent provinces but also in cities as Beijing or Shenzhen. In it she gives the context of the problem of uprooted migrants that have to get by in the big cities, the health risks the fake eggs cause (for example dementia), and that you can find many advertisements where fake egg teachers invite fake egg students. Read here.

Real egg school

What it also shows is that there is a disconnect between the central and local authorities, and that Chinese citizens are sharing information about how to figure about what is real and what not.

Polo Santa Roberta Shop Closed in Mongkok: Shirts Still On Sale at Ladies Market

No longer is there a Polo Santa Roberta shop in Mong Kok. The Hong Kong police Customs cracked down on it. However, if you walk through the Ladies' Market ( 女人街) you can easily spot the Polo Santa Roberta shirts. However, I could not detect any traces of the "original" mix of copying the Burberry tartan pattern with the Ralph Lauren logo. Only the old version of the Ralph Lauren brand seems to be copied. The newer versions of Ralph Lauren's Polo shirts use a larger logo.

Photo taken today at Ladies Market

Greatest Start of the Year: Global Forum on Intellectual Property 2011 Singapore

The Global Forum on Intellectual Property (GFIP) 2011 in Singapore (6-7 January), a bi-annual event, was greater than ever before. It is clear Singapore is committed to becoming a IP hub. Over 95 professors and practitioners (lawyers, judges, inhouse counsels, business people), bloggers and readers who gave speeches about their reflections on the past, their thoughts about the present, and their forcasts for the future of IP. Theory, practice, strategies and tactics on the protection and enforcement of IP were all evocatively conveyed to an audience that was as learned as the speakers. Professor David Llewelyn, chairman of the GFIP and external director of the IP Academy of Singapore, mastermind behind the whole operation has outdone himself. The theme 'Turbulant Times: Onwards and Upwards for Intellectual Property?' was well chosen and during the opening ceremony even Mr K. Shanmugam, minister of home affairs and law gave his acte de présence.

IP rules the world economy

The first keynote address by Professor Peter Williamson (Judge Business School, University of Cambridge and co-author of 'Dragons at Your Door: How Chinese Cost Innovation is Disrupting lobal Competition') was talking about IP and China.

Chinese innovation: using seemingly obsolete technology to gain cost reductions

Professor Williamson asserted that China's innovation did not fall out of the sky. Rather, it was an evolving innovation after 25 years of simple innovations. Look for example to BYD, the car manufacturer who started as a battery manufacturer. The 1990s had an emphasis on cost cutting, according to Professor Williamson. Now Chinese companies look at technologies that seem obsolete and see whether they can transform it into an innovative product. "Can I use low costs to do innovation? It's the thrust of Chinese innovation." Professor Williamson gave the example of the digital direct x-ray equipment. The market for x-ray equipment was first dominated by GE and Philips. The Chinese companies applied their low cost invention to mainstream application. It's not patentable, but it changes the market. Innovations are fast in China, because the cycles they make are frequent. In the West there are less developments between innovations. These Chinese innovations are on a large scale and made for commercialisaton.

Williamson said that patents in China were quite isolated; not many collaborations were going on. He said that China is going to find its own kind of institutional structure, unlike Japan who copied US institutions. which was not such a great success.

During a judges' debate which included the retired Chief Justice of the IPR Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court, Dr Jiang Zhipei, who is now senior advisor to Fangda Partners, a Chinese law firm in the commercial field, the Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Washington D.C., Hon. Randall R. Rader, made an appeal to all judges present: to learn as much as possible from each other and to look at the consequences of their judgments, and if they would not they will be sanctioned by the market.

Judge Rader: "If you [as a judge] will not oversee the consequences of your actions, you will be punished by the market"

Photo panelists from left to right: Justice Andrew Phang (Judge of Appeal, Supreme Court of Singapore), Judge Joachim Bornkamm (Presiding Judge, Federal Supreme Court of Germany), Hon. Randall R. Rader (Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Washington D.C.), Professor Llewelyn (moderator), Sir Richard Arnold, Judge of the High Court, Chancery Division, Hon. Robert van Peursem, Vice President, District Court of The Hague, the Netherlands. Dr Jiang Zhipei part of the panel is 0n the next photo.

To facilitate and not only regulate the market. Judge Rader was not only very informative but entertaining as well and he inspired at least two other speakers to give the audience a choice about the topics on which he was willing to speak. Judge Rader's dramatic descent from the stage to level with the audience was only replicated by Mr Tilman Lueder, head of the unit Copyright and Knowledge-based Economy, Directorate-General Market and Services, who gave attribution to the judge. Judge Rader's singing was only replicated by himself.

Dr Jiang Zhipei is the author of China IPR Law. He asserted that the patent system in China, that has just been amended in 2008, must be reformed and perfected. He offers 8 suggestions:

Dr Jiang: 8 improvements to China's patent law

1. China should deepen its reform and opening up policy, and constantly improve the development mechanism;

2. A stronger, more mature, transparent and consistent China is a prerequisite for the litigation process. Litigants should have confidence that China's litigation process system operates objectively and fairly;

3. Chinese courts should realize uniform and efficient IP judicial protection according to the Compendium of China's National IP Strategy;

4. The Supreme People's Court should establish and perfect relevant litigation procedures such as judicial IP authentication, procedures for expert witnesses, technical investigation and pre-trial interim measures;

5. Chinese courts will explore the possibility of establishing specialised IP tribunals accepting civil, administrative and criminal cases together, and to integrate and optimize resources;

6. Enhancing communication between countries is important;

7. To raise the level of enforcement judgments, strengthening of law enforcement cooperation between difference departments;

8. Summarizing the experience in the process is sometimes more important than just continuing.

More postings about the GFIP 2011 event will follow.

IP Dragon Blogging From Singapore at Global Forum on Intellectual Property

Raffles and Fairmont (Picture Danny Friedmann)

Once every other year the IP Academy of Singapore handpicks IP experts and brings them all together at the Fairmont, opposite the Raffles Hotel at the Global Forum on Intellectual Property 2011.

Professor David Llewelyn made an excellent line up of speakers and IP Dragon is very happy to be give two presentations and launch the TP website. The programme is extremely full of must-see presentations.

For those passionate about IP in China, a lot of very interesting information can be expected.

Tomorrow, January 6th, Professor Peter Williamson (International Management, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge and Co-author of Dragons at Your Door: How Chinese Innovation is disrupting Global Competition is giving the keynote address 1 about IP and China, with the title "Geting Ready to Rumble in the New Asian Decade".

Then also there will be Special Judges' Plenary Session about "The Next Ten Years in Intellectual Property". Moderator will be professor Llewelyn and panelists include:

Dr Jiang Zhipei, Chief Justice of IPR Tribunal, People's Republic of China Supreme People's Court (retired) and senior advisor at Fangda Partners law firm.

I am a great fan of Dr Jiang's famous site China IPR Law on which Dr Jiang explains about IPR in China and answers letters from readers. This site I also heavily used when I was writing my master's thesis.

Also present are judge Joachim Bornkamm, presiding judge of the Federal Supreme Court of Germany;

Justice Andrew Phang, Judge of Appeal, Supreme Court of Singapore;

Hon. Randall R. Rader, US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Washington DC;

Sir Richard Arnold, judge of the High Court, Chancery Division;

Hon. Robert van Peursem, vice president, District Court of The Hague, The Netherlands.

At parallel sessions IP in China experts such as Professors Peter K. Yu, Justin Hughes and Sun Haochen will be available. Last but certainly not least Professor Susan Scafidi will tell everything you ever wanted to know about fashion and IP.

More blogs about this event will follow.

Message from IP Dragon: Happy 2011 from Shenzhen

IP Dragon wishes all his readers a happy, healthy and productive new year. Just moved from Hong Kong to Shenzhen. Only a few kilometers apart but a world of difference. From common law tradition to civil law tradition. From the Special Economic Region to a Special Economic Zone. Although I will still be going to Hong Kong regularly.