1 Liaoning

Neusoft workers arrested

More than 20 employees of Neusoft's medical and healthcare department were recently arrested by Shenyang police, who charged the workers with infringing on the company's intellectual property rights.

The suspects say they were instructed by a Neusoft executive to use the company's resources to develop outside projects.

Some of them claim that they did not know they were doing something that constituted IP infringement and thought it was just part of "normal work".

The Economic Observer

2 Hubei

Chef sues publisher, wins

An intermediate court in Huangshi ruled that Qingdao Publishing Group should apologize to plaintiff Chen Xurong, a renowned chef, and pay him more than 2,000 yuan ($313) for violating his copyright.

Chen who has developed a series of recipes based on local cuisine authorized the publishing house to release several cookbooks. Another cookbook published by the same company contained a recipe, the text and graphics of which were almost identical to one in his book.

The court said the recipe at issue in the case is not one that is commonly known among the public, and it contained innovations by the chef.

The court ruled that the company, as a publisher of Chen's books, was aware that he is the creator and still used the words without authorization, which constituted piracy.

China Intellectual Property News

3 Guangdong

Bottled water bandits busted

Industrial and commercial enforcement officials in Huiyang district, Guangzhou raided two shops suspected of selling fake Yibao bottled mineral water.

The suspects failed to prove that they bought the products through legal channels. The counterfeits were bottled in some small, unknown factories using water from the tap or nearby streams, according to enforcement officials.

"Without required procedures including disinfection, they could pose serious product safety risks," they said.

Southern Daily

4 Hong Kong

HK, Guangdong mark 10 yrs as partners

Hong Kong and Guangdong IP authorities celebrated the 10th anniversary of cooperation between the two sides.

Since 2003, the two sides have co-held a seminar on IP and development of small and medium-sized enterprises, an event that has taken place in many cities of Guangdong, including Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan and benefited more than 2,000 companies.

Uniform standards for IP management co-released by the Guangdong provincial IP office and HK Productivity Council began to take effect in October 2010.

And during a campaign to fight counterfeits and piracy nationwide that lasted from November 2010 to June 2011, the two sides further enhanced their already close ties and initiated an operation named "Sea Dragon". Guangdong customs investigated 43 infringements involving HK and Macao, and HK customs handled 13 cases of infringement. The move was listed among the 10 major national IP protection events of last year.

China Intellectual Property News

5 Shanghai

City aims to be Asian IP center

The Chinese mainland's financial center also aims to lead the Asia-Pacific region in terms of intellectual property by 2020, according to the city's IP strategy.

China has developed a more mature IP system that is adapted to its own specific situations and now needs to have a greater voice in international rule-making, said Lu Guoqiang, chief of the city's IP office.

The number of patent applications in Shanghai grew at an average annual rate of 24 percent and the average annual growth in the number of registered patents was 30 percent from 2004 and 2010.

Patent applications from the city reached around 80,000 filings last year, 45,000 of which were granted.

Xinmin.cn

6 Fujian

New facility to drive innovation

An IP education and research center is expected to be unveiled soon at Xiamen University of Technology.

Co-founded by the school and the Xiamen IP Office, the center is designed to offer training and consultancy, popularize IP awareness, conduct research and promote the commercialization of patents.

Xu Wendong, chief of the city's IP office, said at the signing ceremony in July that he hopes the center can make full use of the university's advantages in manufacturing and information majors to foster IP professionals in law, policy and management.

Sipo.gov.cn

Financial hub Shanghai also plans to be the IP center of the Asia-Pacific region. Zhou Dongchao / China Daily

(China Daily 08/01/2012 page17)