News

Starke participates in the INTA again this year. From our office, Daniel Albrecht and Chunmei Li will travel to Boston. We are looking forward to seeing our long-time international partners again. Use the opportunity and meet our experts and chat with them about your brand protection issues at INTA.

The INTA Annual Meeting is the largest and most influential gathering of brand owners and intellectual property (IP) professionals from around the world and from across industries. Join us for the 141st Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, May 18‒22, 2019, and you’ll leave with...

The UIBE Alumni Business Club (ABC), together with BeHive and The Beijing Center (TBC) hosted the UIBE International Career Fair Week in Beijing.

The event started at April 18, 2019, with a panel discussion about carries opportunities in China. The event attracted more than 80 students and 32 students and alumni watched the online stream.

Speakers:

James LaLonnde

James started his career as an early employee of Microsoft Japan and led the subsidiary's rise to the first billion-dollar revenue subsidiary of a software company in...

Starke Managing Counsel Daniel Albrecht gave some insides about the new “Chinese Investment Law” (waishang touzi fa, 外商投资法) and it’s impact for EUROPEAN countries on Taiwan EBC 24h. Report was broadcasted at March 31.

Since October 2013, China has carried out successful pilot reforms of the foreign investment approval system in Shanghai, Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian. In 2014, the Foreign Investment Law entered the State Council's legislative plan for the first time. One year later, the Ministry of Commerce published a draft for soliciting opinions on its website...

The volume of trademark applications in China has consistently been growing in the past 15 years. This growth, together with the fact that China is a first-to-file trademark system, has led to the proliferation of so-called ‘pre-emptive trademark applications’, filed in bad faith. Bad faith refers to the filing of a trademark that the applicant knows to have been used and developed by another brand. This is done with the intention of making a profit out of it, by selling the trademark back to the brand. Until now, the law made it easy for the so called “professional squatters” to file such...

In March 2019, for the first time a case on copycat design was ordered in favor of an overseas manufacturer. Since the rise of the Chinese vehicle-making industry, the nation's home brands have been accused of creating copycat vehicles that are almost like-for-like duplicates of popular models sold by international car-makers. However, local law has traditionally protected these Chinese brands in legal disputes, claiming that the designs are different enough to legally pass as their own models.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), part of Tata Motors Ltd, sued Jiangling Motors Corp. Ltd. (JMC...

Starke Managing Counsel Daniel Albrecht received his second appointment as Guest Professor at March 19, 2019.

It’s an honor for him to serve as Professor in the future for the Union of Western and Eastern Education (UWEE) and as an Expert for the China Belt and Road International Talent Fund, connected to the China International Talent Exchange Foundation.

Starke Managing Counsel Daniel Albrecht gave an interview about the draft of the new Chinese Investment Law and the related "Negative List". He should refer as an expert whether the new Chinese investment law will protect foreign companies better in the future to prevent forced technology transfer. Read the interview: here

At 15th February Starke Managing Counsel Daniel Albrecht took part at the Breakfast-on with Nicolas Bideau, the Ambassador & Head of Presence Switzerland. The event of the SwissCham Beijing was hosted at Roof Café Swiss Chalet @ Parkview Green Hotel. It was an very informative presentation and fruitful discussion.

In 2011, Nicolas Bideau has been appointed head of Presence Switzerland (PRS). Presence Switzerland is competent for the image of Switzerland abroad, and implements the strategy of the Federal Council on Switzerland’s communication abroad. On the basis of the Federal...

Trademarks are used to distinguish the goods and services from different trademark owners. Trademarks are unique names, symbols, or logos which have distinctive characteristics.

Trademarks are categorized into product marks, service marks, certification marks and collective marks. And the elements that can combine a trademark include (Chinese) characters, figures, letters of the alphabet, sound, colour combinations, 3-dimensional symbol and their combinations according to the Article 8 of China Trademark Law. A trademark seeking registration shall be so distinctive as to...

On November 14th, 2018 the Beijing Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce issued the largest trademark infringement case decided by the Beijing Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce in the past twenty years – the trademark infringement of the “Onitsuka Tiger” branded ASICS sneakers, with a fine of 55.87 million RMB.

ASICS is a Japanese limited corporation which has registered many trademarks , including those with the word “tiger”. In December of 2017, the Fengtai Branch of the Beijing Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce,...

Recently China set up an Intellectual Property Tribunal within the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) to serve as a national IP appellate court.[1] The appeals court opened for business at January 1st, 2019 , two months after plans to launch it were revealed. I t will oversee disputes on patents , plant varieties and computer software , among other areas, but not trademark or trade secrets . The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress is reviewing a draft proposal that paves the way for the Supreme People’s Court to hear appeals also in Shanghai and...

The results of the latest AHK Business Confidence Survey (BCS) shows, that hiring qualified employees is still considered as one of the top challenges among German companies in China .

An inefficient hiring process going along with questionable individual judgements often ends up in the hiring of a not qualified or unsuitable employee. This will most likely increase your staff turnover, will cause in higher personnel cost and might also have a negative impact on the organizational performance. Therefore it is important to be aware of the typical...