The Amount of Applications for Trademark Registration of China in 2017 the First 10 Months Reaches 4.5 Million
China witnessed a sustainable and fast growth in applications for trademark registration, from 2017 January to October, the number of applications for trademark registration is 4.4413 million, 722 thousand more than last year’s 3.691 million, among which the number of application via Internet is 3.771 million, accounting for 85.45% of the total. Until now, there are 105 admissibility windows for trademark registration and 49 acceptance points for trademark pledge application in Industry and Commerce and market regulating departments of 29 Provinces, Autonomous Regions and Municipalities. Online-application, online-inquiry, online-bulletin and online-payment have all been realized and online services for application have increased to 23 items. Trademark business fees have been reduced by 50%.
Shanghai IPR Court Releases Guidance on Trial of Trade Secrets Infringement Disputes
Recently, Shanghai IPR Court released Guidance on Trial of Trade Secrets Infringement Disputes (Guidance), with an aim to further unify the ruling approach on those trade secrets infringement disputes. As the cases about trade secrets infringement are increasing in recent years, judges face various difficulties in handling such kind of cases. Thus, how to provide effective guidance on trial of these cases has become an urgent issue to be resolved. The Guidance formulated under such circumstance provides regulation on 6 aspects of case trial concerning fixing the request of plaintiff for litigation, confirming the defense opinions of defendants etc.
Seminar on Enforcement Inspection Report of Implementing Copyright Law Holds in Zhongguancun IP Cafe of “Innovation Wings”
On November 27th, organized by the Third Civil Division of the Supreme People's Court of P.R.C., Scholars and Enterprises Seminar on Enforcement Inspection Report of Implementing Copyright Law was held in Zhongguancun IP Cafe of“Innovation Wings” of Haidian District, Beijing Municipality. Experts and scholars such as Professor Liu Chuntian, president of China Intellectual Property Law Association and the dean of Intellectual Property Academy of Renmin University of China, and law consultants from Tencent and Jing Dong etc. all attended this seminar. Participants had a heated discussion on several issues, including the current situation, causes and solutions of“high costs of protecting right, long period of finishing a lawsuit, heavy burden of proof and low amount of compensation, the inconformity of standard to settle new type of difficult cases, and modification of copyright law.
HengBao Wins the 50 Million Patent Infringement Case on USB Key
In early November, the Patent Reexamination Board of SIPO (Patent Reexamination Board) issued a decision that the patent right for the invention No. ZL200510105502.1 applied by Beijing Watchdata Technologies Co., Ltd. (Watchdata) is partially invalidated, then there is no suspense that Watchdata would lose its lawsuit against HengBao Co., Ltd. (HengBao) in the infringement case claiming 50 million compensation. A few days ago, Beijing Higher People’s Court made a final judgement which repelled the previous judgement handed down by Beijing Intellectual Property Court and also dismissed the prosecution of Watchdata. As a listed company, the final win of the case will redeem the reputation of HengBao which have made reputation damage during the defeat in the first trial.
