April 26 is International IP day, and in anticipation of the day, Chinese state agencies are announcing plans for intellectual property, releasing statistics, and holding conferences. The activities during this month are key to analyzing the past year’s performance, and to understand those areas where China will be placing a special emphasis for this year. Continue reading
Monthly Archives: April 2012
Official announcement of the FCBA Bench and Bar Program in Beijing
Chief Judge Rader with Renmin U Prof Liu Chuntian.
The Federal Circuit Bar has just posted the formal announcement of its Bench and Bar program with the China Law Society, which will be hosted at Renmin University May 28-30, with the the support of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Supreme People’s Court of China, the US Patent and Trademark Office and the State Intellectual Property Office, amongst others. Continue reading
Russia and China Conclude a Patent Prosecution Highway
After a bilateral meeting between China State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) and Russia Federal Intellectual Property Office (FIPO), China and Russia concluded a Memorandum of Understanding on Patent Prosecution Highway between the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federal Intellectual Property Office. [detail information in Chinese]
The Russian office has now become the fifth national IP office to conclude a patent prosecution highway with China SIPO (the others are Japan, the USA, Germany and Korea). According to the Memorandum of Understanding, the pilot project will begin on July. 1st 2012, and will last for 1 year. The rapid growth in PPH’s, including this intra-BRIC PPH, is startling considering prior Chinese concerns that PPH’s and other methods of burden sharing might adversely implicate China’s “patent sovereignty.”
Understanding China’s New Environment for Intellectual Property
After months of planning and preparation, Fordham’s first China focused IP Conference is only two short days away! Registration has been climbing in the last few days, and it is still open.
With the range of issues covered and many notable featured speakers from the U.S. and Chinese government and judiciary, academia and practitioners, the program promises to be exciting. As April 11th approaches, the speaker biographies and their papers have been posted online as well.
We look forward to learning about these issues from the distinguished panel and their varied perspectives.
Hon. Denny Chin: The “Jeremy Lin” of the Federal Judiciary
Judicial engagement with China on IP issues has frequently had a markedly different tenor from other forms of engagement, such as executive branch, business, or academic. Judges carry less political baggage than does executive branch of the government, may be more direct, and can also be more inclined to be more balanced in their approach, as they reflect upon the kinds of controversies they encounter every day in their courtroom. Most important of all, in judicial encounters with China, judges can also tend to highlight the respect that American society has for the judiciary, in their independence granted by the constitutional guarantees in their salary, their freedom from political interference and their ability to make law. Some judges, such as those of Chinese descent, also help in showing how America strives to be a fair and open system. Continue reading
NCA Releases draft of proposed amendments to the Copyright Law for Comment
On March 31, 2012 the PRC National Copyright Administration (“NCA”) released for comment the first draft of the proposed amendments to the Copyright law. Comments are due April 30, 2012.
(In Chinese): http://www.ncac.gov.cn/cms/html/309/3502/201203/740608.html. As far as we know the draft is not yet calendared at the State Council, nor at the NPC. However with the passage of the Patent Law in 2008, and the pending Trademark Law revisions at the State Council, and the dramatic increase in copyright litigation as well as social interest in copyright-related issues, copyright amendments also seemed inevitable. This draft likely incorporates comments and suggestions from prior drafts of Renmin University, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Prof. Wu Handong’s faculty in Zhongnan University of Politics and Law, as well as the predecessor efforts of former NCA Commissioner Shen Rengan and others, and the IPR and Internet related provisions of China’s Tort Law (2010).
Update: Rogier Creemers has translated the Draft into English, which is posted on his blog: China Copyright and Media.
