Intellectual Property

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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

In August 2008, the Third Amendment to the Patent Law of China (draft) (“Draft Amendment”), was presented to the National Peoples Congress for final deliberation and is expected to become law by early 2009.  This Draft Amendment is the subject of heated discussions throughout China.  This article will give you an overview of some important changes relating to design patents.Continue Reading New Trend in Protecting Design Patents in China

After a 5-year Chinese court battle, Ferrero SPA (“Ferrero”), an Italian chocolate maker, recently won a dispute to stop infringement of its intellectual property rights against Montresor (Zhangjiagang) Food Co. Ltd. (“Montresor”) and Montresor’s distributor, Zhengyuan Distribution Co., Ltd (“Zhengyuan”) in China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC).  This is the first known case where Chinese Courts applies the Anti-Unfair Competition Law to protect well-known foreign merchandise.Continue Reading Use Anti-Unfair Competition Law to Protect Your Brand – Ferrero Company Finally Wins Intellectual Property Case in China

China has not had a particularly good reputation for protecting intellectual property.  People focus on the occurrences of IP infringement in China and mistakenly conclude that there is effectively no IP protection here. China’s present IP dilemma is rooted in the concept of “rule of the man – Emperor.”  Western civilization’s concept of “rule of law” was not adopted by China until about 25 years ago when Deng launched the modernization of China.  Since then, China has been faced with a huge challenge of establishing an internationally acceptable legal framework. China has made significant progress in the enactment of laws, establishment of a court system, and training of legal personnel which have substantial vested interest in protecting their own IP.  The fact is that IP protection is available in China today.  This area has been a key focus of the Chinese Government and China’s emerging high-tech industries.  Thus, significant ongoing progress in IP protection in China can be expected.Continue Reading Protecting Your Brand in China

Why Invest in the Chinese Bio-Industry

The Chinese Government is placing significant emphasis on developing and expanding China’s biotech and pharmaceutical sectors, using a variety of tax breaks, government inducements, and other incentives. The goal is to make China the leader in global life sciences industries. This priority effort poses significant opportunities for foreign investors.Continue Reading Investment in the Chinese Bio-Industry

Have you ever received a letter such as the following:

Dear CEO,

We are the department of registration service in China. There is something we need to confirm with you. We formally received an application on March 26, 2008, from a company which self-styled "Halliton Holdings, Inc" is applying to register "smrh" as internet brand and CN domain names as below:[Name redacted]

smrh.com.tw smrh.hk
smrh.net.cn
smrh.org.cn
smrh.tw
smrh.asia

After our initial examination we found that the internet brands applied for registration are the same as your company’s name and trademark. We are now investigating this matter and hope to get the affirmation from your company. If your company has not authorized the aforesaid company to register these, please contact us as soon as possible.

In addition, we hereby affirm that our time limit for dissent application is ten days. If your company files no dissent within the time limit, we will unconditionally approve the application submitted by "Halliton Holdings, Inc.".

Best Regards

What is that all about?Continue Reading Solicitation by Domain Name Registrar in Asia