Major acts in recent days (08-03-24)

Venue change request

A Pudong court has recently received change of venue request from a popular Chinese website that said the Shanghai court was not the appropriate place to deal with a lawsuit filed against the firm by the Hollywood-based Motion Picture Association, according to Shanghai Daily.

Shenzhen-based Xunlei Networking Technology Co, one of the biggest video information and download software providers in China, said that it has no server in Pudong New Area that offers Internet users the opportunity to download movies that, the US film group said, was piracy.

Xunlei said the firm's server was in Shenzhen's Nanshan District and that the lawsuit should be filed there. Xunlei claims to be the biggest download platform provider in the world and covers about 100 million Internet users, the report said.

The association sued Xunlei last month at the Pudong court, accusing the website of allowing users of its file-sharing service to download hundreds of movies from other websites despite repeated warnings.

It demanded 7 million yuan compensation along with a public acknowledgement of its illegal act.

The association accused Xunlei of allowing users of its peer-to-peer, or P2P, service download copies of movies including Spider-Man 3, War of the Worlds and Miami Vice. It accused Xunlei of continuing to allow violations after the group's lawyers sent 78 warnings.

Sand technology


China has developed an advanced sand-solidifying technology which will be used along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway to protect the highest railway in the world from the ravages of the desert.

The development, named "OH sand-solidifying and foliage-planting technology", is being tested in Qinghai, a sand eroded province in northwest China, a local scientist said.

"The main part of the technological development is a special kind of sand-solidifying drug," said Li Runjie, chief of the project under the Qinghai Provincial Water Conservancy and Hydropower Scientific Research Institute.

According to the experiment, after sowing grass seeds, pouring water and fertilizer into a plot of sand, the treatment was sprayed on the sand surface. In one to two hours, the sand became solid. Grass grew out of the solid sand in about 15 days.

"The chemical treatment, which is able to solidify the sand into a rubber-like solid earth, has no poisonous or harmful elements," the expert claims.

Telecom patents

The telecommunication industry, with the proportion of 10.5 percent, has become the largest sector for patent applications in the world, according to 2007 International Patent Application Statistics promulgated by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). And China's telecommunication industry ranked the seventh in the world with an annual increase of 38.1 percent.

As of the end of 2007, China's telecommunication giant ZTE filed more than 1,300 international patent applications and possessed over 10 thousand invention patents. According to the Chief Intellectual Property Officer of ZTE Guo Xiaoming, the Shenzhen-based company is the leader in patent numbers and proportion of invention patents.

ZTE has achieved major breakthroughs in 3G, NGN (next generation network) and IPTV Chinese manufacturers with ZET as a representative have even outstripped some European and American manufacturers.

Sino-Singapore IDM pact

China and Singapore signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Singapore recently to promote collaborations in interactive digital media (IDM) technology research and development.

The MoU will pave the way for both countries to strengthen their IDM technology capabilities through training and information exchanges, said a joint statement.

Under the deal, the two sides will match and facilitate efforts by institutes of higher learning, research institutes and companies from both countries to participate in IDM technology research and development projects.

The deal will also seek to facilitate joint marketing of IDM technology products.

Singapore's Media Development Authority also signed a deal with China's Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality to develop cross-border, online digital media test-beds to test prototypes for emerging interactive new media services and technology.

Hotel fined for pirated goods

A court in Guangdong province has held a five-star hotel responsible for leasing space to a seller of knock-off Louis Vuitton (LV) products.

The Intermediate People's Court in Dongguan city ordered the hotel and shop manager to pay 100,000 yuan in compensation to the French luxury producer. The court also ordered the shop and the hotel to stop selling the products and destroy any remaining counterfeit items, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The court documents didn't name the hotel but did state that the hotel collected a monthly rental of 20,000 yuan from leasing the shop, where sales people wore hotel uniforms.

"There were no signboards or any notices in the shop for customers to identify that the management was independent from the hotel," the court ruled.

Louis Vuitton had demanded compensation of 500,000 yuan from the hotel and a public apology through the media. The court declined, saying that the hotel hadn't caused widespread market harm to LV.

Fake 'Vitamin V'

The general manager of a private chemical company based in Shanghai has been charged with selling thousands of bogus Viagra tablets to overseas customers over the Internet, a Shanghai Daily report said.

Yu Bohuai, 33, was arrested last June. The Shanghai No 2 Intermediate People's Court held a first hearing earlier this month.

A judge in charge of the case said Yu faced charges of illegal business operation, selling fake medicines and intellectual property infringement.

Yu, general manager of Shanghai Daishang Chemicals Co, is accused of selling fake Viagra tablets to overseas buyers in four deals that were completed in March 2006 and May last year.

He is alleged to have sold a total of 14,030 tablets, with the last transaction the largest, involving 8,000 pills.

The court heard Yu sold the tablets for US$1.20 or US$1.50 to his overseas clients. It is alleged he bought all the blue pills from a man who went by the pseudonym "Xu Dong," for five yuan per pill.

"Xu Dong" has been identified as Ou Yong by the police. Police have not revealed any further information.

Online safety


The Business Software Alliance (BSA), a non-profitable organization dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world, has launched an educational website (www.b4usurf.org) to provide educators and parents with information to help youths understand the dangers that exist online and to surf safely and responsibly. Tips are also available for youths.

Zhang Quansheng, director of BSA China said among Chinese netizens, students or youths account for as high as 28.8 percent. Many are exposed to pirated, illegal and unhealthy online content. "Our goal is to help teach young people about cyber-ethics and cyber-safety, even as they immerse themselves in the cyber world," said Zhang.

The website was also launched in English versions in major Asian regions including Singapore and China's Taiwan province.