Major acts in recent days (08-03-10)

Trademark applications

China ranks eighth in international trademark applications by applying for 1,444 trademarks in 2007, according to a report released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The top three countries are Germany, France and the United States.

WIPO's Madrid system of international trademark registration received 39,945 international trademark applications last year, an increase of 9.5 percent over 2006.

TCM in Malta

Malta's national hospital of Mater Dei recently opened its first traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clinic, also the first of its kind in a state hospital in any European country, says a Xinhua News Agency report.

Malta's Health Minister Louis Deguara and Chinese ambassador Chai Xi attended the ceremony. On behalf of the Chinese government, the Chinese ambassador donated some medicines and medical equipment to the hospital.

Cao Dianpeng, chief of China's medical team to Malta, said the move would promote the popularity of the TCM across Europe and open up possibilities for more exchanges between western medicine and the TCM.

Airbus domain dispute

Airbus, the leading aircraft manufacturer, has applied for arbitration in a domain-name dispute against a Beijing individual in Hong Kong, according to a Shanghai Daily report.

Cai Qilin registered ownership of the domain name airbus.cn last April. But at the end of last year, he received a complaint letter via the Hong Kong International Arbitration Center. In the complaint, Airbus SAS said it and its related companies had registered a number of "airbus"-related trademarks in countries and regions around the world, including some domain names.

The aircraft manufacturer said Cai had registered the domain name with questionable intent because the domain name refers visitors to a website selling discounted air tickets. This could mislead people into thinking the website is related to Airbus and harm the company's reputation, the company said.

Airbus has asked for the domain name airbus.cn to be transferred to it. Cai's lawyer argued that Airbus does not own a trademark on the term "airbus" in China.

Although the company had registered domain names such as airbus.com.cn and airbus.org.cn after it entered the Chinese market, it had neglected the domain name airbus.cn.

Cai's lawyer said "airbus" is a noun used generically by people to refer to large aircraft and did not necessarily refer to specifically to the aircraft manufacturer.

The result of the arbitration has not yet been announced.

New hi-tech bases

China has established 30 new State-level high-tech industrial bases, lifting the total number to 65. The 30 bases include six all-around ones and 24 that specialize in civil aviation, new energy resources, microelectronics, information and biology. They are based in 30 different cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xi'an and Tianjin.

Last year, the industrial output of the high-tech sector reached 1.91 trillion yuan, 7.8 percent of China's gross domestic product.

Meanwhile, the new high-tech exports hit $347.8 billion, accounting for nearly 30 percent of the nation's total exports.

Industrial output and exports rose at average annual rates of 21.5 percent and 37.7 percent, respectively, during the past seven years to 2007.

PCT application boom

As a member of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application-accepting unit, the State Intellectual Property Office received 5,401 PCT applications last year, 41.2 percent more than the year before. Among them, 5,211 were from China and 180 from abroad, taking 96.7 percent and 3.4 percent of the total respectively.

Some 90 percent of PCT applications in China came from Guangdong province, Beijing, Shanghai and the east costal area. Guangdong had 2,646 applications, the largest amount in China, Beijing had 560 while Shanghai, Taiwan, Hong Kong had 385, 270, 246, respectively. Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and Liaoning provinces also had more than 100 applications.

Businesses were the main applicants, with 70 percent coming from Chinese enterprises. Huawei Technologies submitted 1,544 applications; ZTE had 430, taking the first and second positions among all enterprises.

Soap opera settlement

Zhejiang Taizhou Intermediate People's Court helped settle Beijing Netmovie Company's allegation of copyright infringement against a Taizhou website. The defendant agreed to pay 100,000 yuan for infringing on the network distribution rights of the Hong Kong-based broadcasting company TVB.

Netmovie is an authorized distributor of TVB's five soap operas, Semper Paratus, Tossing Rain and Turning Clouds, Revolving Door of Vengeance, Face to Fate and Glittering Days. The defendant offered online viewing of the five works at its site, which infringed on the network distribution rights of TVB. Representing TVB in this copyright dispute, Netmovie sought i220,000 yuan in damages.

After debating in court, the two parties showed their willingness to settle for 100,000 yuan.

Bullet train debut

The first homegrown bullet train CRH3, with a speed of up to 350 kph, will be launched on at the end of this month in Tangshan, a city of North China's Hebei province, and go into operation on the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway soon.

CNR Tangshan Locomotive and Rolling Stock Works built the train with the support from other domestic enterprises. The local firm has mastered nine key technologies and produced a series of bullet train products with registered intellectual property rights.

The move means China has joined an elite world club with Japan, France and Germany to be also capable of producing the high-speed trains.