1 Beijing

Supreme court: Sharp rise in intellectual property cases

Nearly 60,000 intellectual property cases were filed in courts of first instance last year, a 40 percent increase over 2010, according to a report released by the Supreme People's Court on April 18.

More than 58,000 cases were completed by the end of the year.

Disputes involving foreign parties increased in 2011, drawing increasing attention from home and abroad to China's trial processes and sentences, the supreme court said.

The report said the rise in cases and increasing publicity are reflections of growing competition for proprietary innovation.

Chinanews.com

2 Shanghai

Seminar on overseas legal practices and enforcement

An international seminar on intellectual property protection held last week in Xuhui district discussed the latest cases in Europe, the United States and Japan, along with information on foreign trials and enforcement.

Organizers said the seminar was designed to assist domestic companies that lack knowledge of overseas legal practices, which leads to a failure in maintaining IP rights in disputes abroad.

The meeting was organized by the district's intellectual property administration that provides services to high-tech startups.

Shanghai Evening Post

3 Jiangsu

130-member alliance formed to protect innovation, rights

An alliance for intellectual property protection was recently formed in Nanjing, capital of the eastern province, with more than 130 member organizations from a wide range of professions including local prosecutors, administrators and the judiciary along with the private sector, academia and intermediary agencies.

Designed to integrate resources for better protection and provide support for the city's sustainable development, it is the country's first cross-industry, multi-departmental IPR group, said local officials.

Legaldaily.com

French winemaker found guilty of trademark infringement

A Wenzhou court recently ordered French winemaker Castel Freres SAS and its Chinese distributors to stop using the Chinese trademark for Castel and pay more than 33.7 million yuan ($5.3 million) in compensation to the Shanghai firm Panati Wine and its founder Li Daozhi.

Li applied for the trademark in 1998 and it was granted in 2000. The firm Cavesmaiter affiliated with Pantai has since used the mark.

The French company Castel Freres was founded in 2005 and began to sell wines carrying the disputed trademark in China in 2006, which the court found infringed on Pantai's IP rights.

Cavesmaiter exports premium wines from France to many countries, especially after it acquired three wineries in Bordeaux.

Xinhuanet.com

4 Chongqing

Big deals inked on patented technology and expertise

About 91 billion yuan in deals were signed at a recent international high-tech trade fair in the southwestern metropolis.

The event attracted 180 delegations from 35 countries and regions including first-time exhibitors from Denmark, Luxembourg and Hungary.

Agreements on patented technologies signed during the four-day fair included licensing deals on frontier tech and contracts with experts on smart grids, clean coal, eco-friendly materials and industrial robots, organizers said.

China's high-tech sector generated more than 8 trillion yuan and had $550 billion in exports last year.

Chongqing Morning Post

5 Guangdong

ZTE agrees to settle with Ericsson, both withdraw suits

Chinese telecom company ZTE recently agreed to pay a licensing fee to the Swedish company Ericsson to settle long-running intellectual property disputes.

As part of the settlement, both sides also agreed to withdraw international patent infringement lawsuits targeting each other, including cases in Germany, the United Kingdom and China.

While the announcement did not disclose the size of the settlement, ZTE said it would not have an adverse effect on its fiscal condition and business operations.

Oriental Morning Post

6 Tibet

Thirteen local firms receive 'State-level' high-tech status

Thirteen local firms are among Tibet's first group of companies to secure status as State-level high-tech enterprises.

The majority are in the biomedicine industry, with the rest from digital science, information technology and environmental protection engineering.

All have core proprietary intellectual property backed by sustainable R&D capacity, said Ma Shengjie, head of the science and technology department of the autonomous region.

The status will bring tax breaks and preferential policies on equity incentives, land use, government aid and financial services.

Ma added that his department will offer more training and research rewards to promote the industrialization of innovation.

Tibet.cn

(China Daily 04/25/2012 page17)