Ai-Leen Lim
China’s president pledges stronger IP enforcement
By Ai-Leen Lim | Posted on May 4, 2021
China’s president Xi Jinping has reiterated the country’s commitment to strengthening intellectual property protection and enforcement through higher damages and criminalisation. The article was published by the official state-run press agency of the People’s Republic of China – Xinhua. It stresses that innovation is the primary driving force behind development and protecting intellectual property rights is equal to protecting...
Tags: awards, china, copyright, Intellectual Property, Patent, Trademark
After seven years China and EU sign investment agreement
By Ai-Leen Lim | Posted on March 16, 2021
Ai-Leen Lim considers some of the highlights from the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment between China and the EU. Agreement negotiations have been ongoing for seven years, but finally a deal has been reached “in principle”. Despite the ongoing pandemic, two of the world’s largest economies came together on shared priorities. On December 30, 2020, the...
Beijing IP Court awards Shell statutory damages
By Ai-Leen Lim | Posted on February 24, 2021
In a recent base before the Beijing IP Court, oil and gas giant Shell International received the maximum amount of statutory damages in a trademark infringement and unfair competition case On January 21, 2021, the Beijing IP Court announced its decision in a trademark infringement and unfair competition case between two plaintiffs and five defendants....
Tags: Beijing IP Court, china, Infringement, Shell, trademarks, unfair competition
Lego’s copyright victory against Lepin in China
By Ai-Leen Lim | Posted on December 14, 2020
Danish toymaker Lego wins another landmark case in China using copyright and anti-unfair competition to protect its market share of the US$15 billion toy and games industry On September 2, 2020, the Shanghai Third Intermediate Court announced sentencing of nine individuals to up to six years imprisonment and fines of RMB 90 million RMB (USD...
China issues Opinions on destroying infringing and counterfeit goods
By Ai-Leen Lim | Posted on October 15, 2020
On August 13, 2020, nine of China’s authorities including the Supreme People’s Court and the State Administration for Market Regulation jointly released the Opinions on Strengthening the Destruction of Infringing and Counterfeit Goods (Opinions). The nine authorities involved are: National Leading Group for Combating Infringement and Counterfeiting, Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China,...
Tags: china, counterfeit, destruction, Infringement, trademarks
CNIPA publishes trademark infringement criteria
By Ai-Leen Lim | Posted on October 15, 2020
To help strengthen and guide trademark law enforcement, provide uniform criteria for law enforcement, strengthen the protection of exclusive rights to use trademarks and create a good business environment, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) has enacted the Criteria for Judging Trademark Infringement (Criteria), which went into effect on June 15, 2020. The Criteria...
Upcoming amendments to China’s Copyright Law
By Ai-Leen Lim | Posted on June 24, 2020
Long-awaited amendments to China’s Copyright Law introduce punitive damages for the first time, provide greater powers to the authorities when investigating infringement and capture the rapid developments in digital technology First enacted in 1991 and amended in 2001 and then 2010, China’s lawmakers began reviewing the third amendment (Draft) to the Copyright Law on April...
Tags: china, copyright, digital technology, enforcement, Infringement, punitive damages
Punitive damages case appears in list of top 10 IP cases from China’s Supreme People’s Court
By Ai-Leen Lim | Posted on May 20, 2020
On April 21, 2020, China’s Supreme People’s Court released a list of the top 10 intellectual property law cases of 2019. The cases cover patent (invention and design), trademark, copyright and unfair competition. One of the cases selected involved a US Pilates company where punitive damages were awarded. While punitive damages are well-established in terms...
Tags: Balanced Body, Infringement, IPR, punitive damages, SPC, statutory damages, trademarks, Yongkang Elina
Why China’s computer software copyright registrations are increasing
By Ai-Leen Lim | Posted on April 20, 2020
Statistics show a sharp rise in copyright registrations for computer software in China, which can provide an additional layer of protection alongside patents The National Copyright Administration of the People’s Republic of China (NCAC) released last year’s filing data earlier this month. In 2019, there was a 21% year-on-year increase in copyright registrations with the...
Tags: china, computer, copyright, IP, patents, programmes, Software
China further curbs bad-faith trademark applications
By Ai-Leen Lim | Posted on April 20, 2020
Provisions enacted alongside China’s recently amended Trademark Law seek to effectively regulate bad-faith trademark filings including penalties through the nation’s social credit system In response to the bad-faith application regime, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) published Several Provisions for Regulating the Application for the Registration of Trademarks (Draft) on February 12, 2019. The...
Tags: applications, Bad faith, china, CNIPA, IP, malicious, registration, trademarks
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