Major acts in recent days (08-08-13)

Agricultural trademarks

Liuzhou Municipal Department of Industry and Commerce has formulated a three-year plan for agricultural trademarks and geographical indication. By 2010, agricultural trademarks of the city will exceed 250 pieces, five of which will become famous trademarks of Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and four agricultural product geographical indications, the department says.

Liuzhou currently owns 146 agricultural trademarks, but only one trademark is geographical indication. A large number of local agricultural products with local characteristics need to apply for collective trademark or certification trademark for the protection of geographical indication.

Chongqing IPR aid center

Chongqing has become one of the country's first cities to establish IPR protection aid centers. The Chongqing Municipal IPR Assistance Center is expected to accept applications this year, according to the Chongqing Intellectual Property Office.

The center will provide legal aid to inventors with economic difficulties or Chinese citizens and enterprise who have encountered with difficult IPR cases. The center will offer legal consultation, organize argumentation and give suggestions to qualified applicants.

For the Chinese parties involved in major foreign-related IPR disputes, the center will fund the litigation.

At the same time, the center will provide IPR argumentation and early-warning services to economic, trade and technology transfer activities, as well as legal status inquiry and infringement judgment services to large exhibitions and events.

Pirated discs

Any one who sells more than 500 pieces of pirated discs will take criminal responsibility, according to a meeting recently held by the Municipal Anti-pornography and Anti-piracy Office, the Culture Bureau and the Press and Publication Bureau of Anshan, Liaoning province.

The city will conduct a series of inspections on local cultural market. All citizens are welcomed to report illegal behaviors by dialing 12318.

During this period, law enforcement officials will inflict a stiff punishment on offenders. If the amount of pirated books, audio and video publications and software sold in one time do not exceed 100 items, all illegal goods and income will be confiscated, and the law breaker will be punished a minimum of 10,000 yuan but not exceeding 50,000 yuan. If the amount of the sold pirated goods surpasses 500 items, the law-breaking unit or individual will bear criminal liability.

Fighting Internet piracy

The Xuzhou Municipal Copyright Bureau and the Public Security Bureau have developed a four-month special campaign against Internet infringement and piracy. The campaign will target illegal broadcasting of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and related activities on the Internet and the infringement and piracy of video websites and punish the video websites which broadcast others' works without authorization.

Court rules against Fiat

The Great Wall Motor Co, China's largest maker of sports utility vehicles, said recently that a local court had dismissed a claim that it had copied a Fiat model, contradicting an earlier ruling by an Italian court.

Great Wall's GWPeri contains "remarkable differences" on the front view, left view and right view from Fiat's patent, the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court says in a ruling, according to a statement filed to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by the Chinese automaker. Fiat was ordered to pay 8,800 yuan in costs, Bloomberg News reports.

Earlier in July, Fiat won a ruling in Turin, its hometown, banning Great Wall from selling the GWPeri in Europe because of similarities to its Panda.

Jail term for software piracy

Two software professionals who sold pirated Microsoft software were recently jailed, the Shanghai Daily reports. They bought genuine Microsoft software to get a permission agreement and added pirated software to it to make buyers believe they were buying the genuine article, the Pudong New Area People's Court heard.

The court sentenced Xu Chufeng to two and a half years with probation and Jiang Haiyu to three years with probation for copyright infringement. They were each fined about 150,000 yuan and ordered to return their illegal income of about 290,000 yuan to Microsoft.

Xu, 35, was a software salesman in Great Wall Software and System Co Ltd, the general agency of Microsoft in China.

Hubei help center unveiled

China (Hubei) IPR Assistance Center was recently unveiled in Wuhan, Hubei province. The center is one of the first 10 IPR assistance centers throughout the country.

The State Intellectual Property Office last year issued Guiding Opinions on Developing IPR Assistance Work and decided to establish the first 10 IPR assistance centers.

IPR education

The Education Bureau, the Science and Technology Bureau and Intellectual Property Office of Kunming, Yunnan province, will jointly launch IPR education work in primary and middle schools.

From this autumn semester, 30 primary and middle schools will be chosen as pilot schools to present IPR courses and nearly 17,000 students will receive IPR education. The courses will include students of Grade 6 in primary school, Grade 2 in junior high school, and Grade 2 in senior high school. Eight hours are scheduled for two semesters.

Apart from IPR courses, each pilot unit will develop publicity and education activities, in connection with events such as World IP Day and Science and Technology Week. Each pilot unit will also convene an IPR special report forum and IPR knowledge contest.

Based on the pilot work the project will be expanded to every primary and middle school next year.