intellectual property

Dior: 3D trademark registration case in China

2014 Christian Dior registered its J’adore perfume bottle as a 3D trademark and also an international registered trademark . Following the Madrid Agreement and the Madrid Protocol, Dior applied a territorial extension protection in China through the international bureau of WIPO. The TRAB of the SAIC rejected the application on July 13, 2015 with the reason of lack on distinctiveness. Dior filed a application for review of the refusal, but was also rejected with the same reason. After that, Dior submitted a administrative case to the court against TRAB’s decision, but failed by...

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Protecting your IP rights with the Chinese Anti-Unfair Competition Law (AUCL)

The definition of an unfair competition is given by the article 2 of the PCR Anti-Unfair Competition Law(反不正当竞争法). According to this article, an act of unfair competition is constituted when during production or distribution activities, a business operator disrupts the market competition order or infringes the legal rights and interests of other business operators or consumers.

Some unfair competition acts can be related to intellectual property such as the Article 6 which concerns the copy and imitation of brands and the Article 9 relating to the trade secrets. These articles...

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Chateau Lafite Rothschild, a well known trademark in China?!

The Shanghai Intellectual Property Court concluded a trademark infringement lawsuit raised by the French wine manufacturer Chateau Lafite against Shanghai Mellowines Development Co Ltd and its parent company Shanghai Safe International Logistics.

Chateau Lafite Rothschild owns the English trademark Lafite in China since 1997, and filed a trademark application for the Chinese version of Lafite, a decade later. Its application was first rejected by the SAIC and in 2017, the trademark registration was finally approved.

In May 2015, Lafite found that Shanghai Mellowines sold...

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Qihu ./. Jiangmin, a GUI Design Patent Case in China

The Beijing IP court issued a judgement on 25. December 2017 in a case concerning graphical user interface (GUIs). The dispute is between Qihu, the plaintiff and its competitor Jiamin.

Qihu holds a design patent entitled “computer with GUI”, the patent protection included a computer which displayed the GUIs. Qihu claimed that the Jianmin Optimization Expert product used a GUI that was similar to one protected by its patents. In that respect, Qihoo requested the court to order the cessation of the infringement and sought compensation of RMB 10 millions for the damage suffered. The...

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BMW Sound mark in China

Since 2014, sound marks are registrable as a trademark in China after the amendment of the Trademark Law of the People’s Republic of China. Thus, start or ending songs of programs or musical advertisements can seek a protection by the Trademark Law. However, until 2018, only 21 sound marks were allowed to be registered out of a total of about 500 sound marks application.

BMW AG applied for a sound mark registration including a piece of instrumental used in commercial activities and at the end of BMW commercials. First, its application was rejected on grounds of the lack of...

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The Lego Case in China

Lego Group sued two Chinese companies for manufacturing and selling products that were almost identical to ones from the Lego Friends range. The leading European toymaker claimed that the logo and the packaging used by the Chinese companies under the brand Bela constitute an infringement of the copyright in Lego Group’s logo and packaging.

The issue raised before the Court was whether products sold under the brand Bela infringe Lego’s copyrights, and in this direction, constitutes an act of unfair competition. On September 2017, the Shantou Intermediate People’s Court ruled in...

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E-Commerce in China from a Legal Perspective

E-Commerce is a hot topic, and hence already widely discussed. This Seminar offers the opportunity, to not only learn about e-Commerce from a business point of view, but moreover find out about crucial aspects and challenges of e-Commerce from the perspective of Law.

Topic 1: Legal problems In the Chinese e-commerce market
- Entry models into the Chinese e-Commerce market
- Legal issues when entering the Chinese e-Commerce market
- IPR Protection
- Take Down-Procedure of online shops

Topic 2: E-Commerce Platforms like Tmall and...

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Domain Name Registration and Protection in China

With the development and usage of World Wide Web, mobile internet and mobile phones, the Chinese E-Commerce market got an enormous growth. According to “Chinese E-Commerce Market Data Monitoring Report 2016”, the E-Commerce transaction amount reached 22.97 trillion RMB in 2016.

For both Chinese and international enterprises, to join this market is a trend but also a necessity. As one of the mainly path for entering E-Commerce market, the meaning of domain name registration is therefore getting more and more important.

Worldwide exist 330 million registered domain names...

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GIPC 2017 Global Intellectual Property Ecology Congress

The 2017 Global Intellectual Property Ecology Congress was held in Beijing on November 18, organized jointly by IPRdaily and Capital Intellectual Property Services Association. Theme of this Event was “Establish the new partnership between Intellectual property agencies under ’One Belt and One Road’ initiative”.

Topics like new opportunities for IP, Ideas of IP cooperation under “One Belt and One Road” initiative; new future for IP, IP+Technology; IP capitalism, IP+Finance were discussed by the participants. GIPC 2017 invited 800 industrial elites from more than 300 companies of 15...

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The Art of E-commerce: Your way into China

Switzerland Chamber of Commerce, SwissCham Beijing, together with the Israel Chamber of Commerce, IsCham , hosted a seminar with the title The Art of E-commerce: Your way into China on October 26th at IBCC- Israeli Business and Cultural Center at 798.

“15.5% of all retail sales, amounting to $752 billion, were transacted online last year — up 26.2% year-on-year.” ---China’s National Bureau of Statistics
“Over 500 million people reportedly engaged in online shopping in China in 2016. By 2020, it is estimated that e-commerce sales in China will surpass those of the
...

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