Major acts in recent days (07-08-06)

 Creative youth contest

A total of 200 primary and high school students won prizes on July 24 in the first Children and Youth Creation Contest organized by the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) and the Chinese Society of Education, part of an effort to encourage innovation and respect for intellectual property among young students.

As many as 1,000 students from 21 provinces on the mainland participated in the contest. Finalists demonstrated their creations in Beijing.

Lin Binghui, vice-commissioner of SIPO, said young students should be encouraged and supported in innovation, because they are the future of an innovative China.

SIPO also designated 20 patent examiners to partner with the 200 young inventors to provide assistance with patents and filing procedures to the students for future inventions.

Patent management seminars

SIPO, patent officials and experts in Mongolia and South Korea exchanged their experiences in patent management and agent administration in late July to learn from their counterparts and share the country's information on patents.

The Sino-Mongolian seminar, held in Ulan Bator, was the second gathering of officials from the two countries since signing an agreement on cooperation on intellectual properties.

The Sino-South Korean seminar was held in Beijing. Li Yuguang, vice-commissioner of SIPO, said domestic agents should learn from the experience of South Korea, one of the intellectual property leaders in the world.

Patents as loan guarantees

The Chinese Banking Regulatory Commission unveiled guidelines on financing aids for small and medium businesses under which companies can use their trademarks, patents or copyrights as guaranties for loans.

Small and medium businesses, which do not have many financing channels, have had difficulties receiving loans from banks because of their small scale or lack of other companies willing to provide guaranties for them.

New guidelines from the commission will lower barriers for smaller businesses that have quality intellectual properties and an urgent need for capital.

Olympics protection

The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) will recruit 350 volunteer lawyers to collect information about Olympics intellectual properties and take necessary measures to protect them.

Peng Xuefeng, vice-chairman of Beijing Lawyers Association, said on July 23 that the organization was entrusted by BOCOG to recruit volunteer lawyers beginning last August and now has 140 professionals signed up.

Before the opening of the Games in August 2008, 210 lawyers will still be needed.

Download lawsuit

Domestic online music website 5fad.com filed a lawsuit against the No 1 Chinese Web search firm Baidu.com on July 18 for alleged infringements on copyrights of more than 1,000 songs and asked Baidu to pay 100 million yuan in compensation.

The amount is reported to be the largest ever copyright compensation claim from a domestic firm.

5fad.com has sued Baidu three times since early 2006 for providing download links of songs and pictures on its website, but all the lawsuits have been rejected by courts.

Baidu has been sued by many other domestic and global record companies or music websites for similar reasons, but most of them reached a settlement agreement after Baidu removed the links.

Online publication rules

The General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) said it would encourage the consolidation of resources in traditional and online publication, as well as foster the formation of online publication giants and increase efforts to stop online piracy and illegal content publication.

Kou Xiaowei, deputy director of the audio and video, electronic and Internet publication department of GAPP, said that there are 200,000 websites engaged in various kinds of online publications that have generated annual revenues of 13 billion yuan.

He said at the second Chinese Digital Publication Expo on July 16 in Beijing that GAPP is working on regulations that will set entry requirements for online publications.

Online publications cover all areas of print or electronic publication, from e-books, to online maps and games. More than 40,000 people work in the sector.

Energy inventions urged

SIPO, the Chinese Society of Invention and leading Chinese inventors called on inventors in the country to participate in developing technologies and techniques for saving energy and reducing emissions.

As part of the effort, 12 inventors demonstrated their technologies on July 17, including bio-fuel diesel, energy-saving bricks and devices for using solar energy.

The Chinese Society of Invention will also hold the 17th China Invention Exposition in Langfang, a city neighboring Beijing, to showcase new inventions from Chinese enterprises and individuals.