At the 36th Annual Meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ("ICANN") on October 30, 2009, the ICANN board finally approved the new Internationalized Domain Name ("IDN") Fast Track Process. IDNs have been a topic of discussion since before ICANN’s inception. It has taken years of intense technical testing, policy development, and global cooperation to prepare the Fast Track process for its launch. On November 16, 2009, ICANN officially opened the IDN Fast Track Process to allow countries that use non-Latin based languages to also apply for top-level domains that reflect their country’s name in local scripts such as Chinese, Korean, Arabic, etc.Continue Reading Protect Your Internationalized Domain Names

On Sept. 28, 2009, comScore released August 2009 online video visit statistics from the comScore Video Metrix service, showing that the online video visit volume exceeded 25 billion in August, the largest number ever recorded. Google accounted for more than 10 billion visits during the month, while Hulu nailed fourth place with 488 million.Continue Reading Hulu: The Successful Copyright Licensing Model

On December 27, 2008, China’s top legislature (the National People’s Congress) approved the revision of the Patent Law. It became effective on October 1, 2009. The law was promulgated in 1984 and had previously been revised in 1992 and 2000. The first amendment added pharmaceutical compositions to the list of patentable items and introduced China’s membership in the Patent Cooperation Treaty ("PCT"). The second amendment responded to the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ("TRIPS") Agreement.Continue Reading China’s New Patent Law Effective October 1, 2009

The Chinese government’s emphasis on boosting innovation might be proving fruitful. According to the latest statistics from the State Intellectual Property Office (“SIPO”), the government entity responsible for prosecuting patents, there were 426,000 patent applications filed and 252,000 patents granted in China during the first half of 2009. Compared with the first half of 2008, patent filings are up 31.3 percent and patent grants are up 23.1 percent.

China’s patent system allows for three types of patents: invention patents, utility model patents, and design patents. China invention patents are similar to utility patents in the United States. The patent term for invention patents is 20 years from the filing date. Patents for invention are substantively examined. It typically takes two to five years for an invention patent to issue.Continue Reading 426,000 Patent Applications Filed in China During First Half of 2009

Online games are big business in China and they’re only getting bigger. The China Annual Game Industry Report 2007 underlines the explosive growth in this industry. As of 2007, the online game user population reached 40,170,000 and has rapidly expanded since then. As the market for online games has increased, so too has the market for virtual property trading. According to The Seventh China Online Game Survey 2007, 83.7% of the users traded items for cash, 46.8% of the users hired third parties to obtain virtual properties on their behalf. These activities amounted to an estimated 4 billion in RMB in 2007.Continue Reading Online Games and Virtual Property

In February of 2005, Zhang Bin (“Zhang”) offered for sale one user account for the online game Paradise.  On the sales ad, Zhang claimed his account has a high player level and excellent equipment.  In March of 2005, Mr. Shen purchased Zhang’s Paradise account and password for 4800 RMB.  Soon after Mr. Shen’s purchase, he noticed that his Paradise account had been stolen.  After investigation, local police arrested Zhang on March 28, 2005 for theft.  The case “Zhang’s Alleged Theft of Account” was heard by the Ningbo Haishu District Court.  The court found that virtual property could be the subject of theft because virtual property is controllable and transferable without losing value.  The court found that Zhang’s actions amounted to the crime of theft.  Zhang was sentenced to one year imprisonment with two year suspension of sentence and a fine of 5,000 RMB.Continue Reading Criminal Prosecution for Virtual Property Theft

Today, virtual currency trading is widely accepted in China.  Billions of RMB in virtual currency is being traded online, and this amount increases by 20% every year.  There are two major types of virtual currency.  The first type of virtual currency is offered by instant messaging and portal-based issuers.  Examples of such currency include Q Coins from Tencent, U Coins from Sina, POPO Gold Coins from NetEase, and Baidu Coins from Baidu.  Q Coins is the most popular virtual currency in China because Tencent’s instant messaging software QQ dominates 90% of the market in China and has four times the users of MSN.  Starting in May 2002, users can purchase Q Coins with RMB at the exchange rate of 1:1.  Tencent has always prohibited users from selling back or exchange Q Coins for real money.  Tencent’s original intention was for users to spend Q Coins on Tencent operated websites.  However, the popularity of Q Coins has projected Q Coins beyond Tencent’s control and Q Coins are now being trade for real money and used as an online payment system.Continue Reading The Rise of Virtual Currency in China

On November 17, 2008, the Supreme People’s Court (“SPC”) released the “100 Typical Cases of Intellectual Property Right (‘IPR’) Protection” (the “100 Cases”).  The SPC hopes that these cases reflect improvement in China’s judicial protection of China IPR.  The SPC deems these "100 Cases" as “model cases”.  The "100 Cases" consist of 50 SPC cases (45 civil and 5 administrative cases) and 50 District Court cases (30 civil, 10 administrative and 10 criminal cases).Continue Reading SPC Released 100 Typical Cases of IPR Protection