Major acts in recent days (08-12-15)

China-Singapore IPR seminar

The Third China-Singapore Intellectual Property Seminar was recently held in Singapore. Deputy Director of State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) Li Yuguang led a delegation to the seminar and delivered a keynote speech.

Based on the framework of memorandum of cooperation signed in 2004, the two sides jointly organized the seminar. Representatives from China's SIPO, State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) and related companies also attended.

More than 100 participants from Singapore government and business community took part and discussed the hot issues in IPR field with their Chinese counterparts.

Tech agreement renewed

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Samsung Corp have inked an agreement for further technology cooperation and exchanges. CAS Vice-president Li Jiayang and CEO of the Samsung Electronics Chang-Gyu Hwang witnessed the signing ceremony.

According to the agreement, the two sides will carry out a series of projects within the next five years, ranging from cooperative research to technological exchanges.

Recent years have witnessed closer ties between CAS and Samsung. The two sides have jointly set up research labs and sponsored symposiums to carry out technological cooperation since 2003. More frequent visits and exchanges have also been made by science and technology workers of the two sides. Cooperative studies have been conducted on such issues as fuel cells, display technology, biotechnology, and nano technology.

Vale's subsidiaries sued

Corun, a Shanghai-listed nickel processor and battery maker, is suing two units of Vale, one of the world's largest mining companies, in a patent infringement case.

Corun lodged a case with an intermediary court in its local jurisdiction in Hunan Province last month claiming nearly 90 million yuan in damages from two Chinese subsidiaries of Vale Inco, the wholly owned Canadian subsidiary of Vale.

The Financial Times reported that Vale Inco was planning to sell the two joint-venture subsidiaries, in which it holds majority stakes of more than 70 percent, and that Corun had expressed interest in purchasing one or both of them.

Apple wins lawsuit

US electronic manufacturer Apple Inc has won a trademark infringement lawsuit against an electronics company based in Shenzhen that used an apple in its logo.

The Intermediate People's Court in Shenyang, the capital of the Liaoning province, said New Apple Concept Digital Technology Co Ltd was ordered to pay 400,000 yuan for infringing Apple's trademark and logo, Xinhua reported.

Apple Inc registered its trademark and apple logo when it entered China in 1993. It has exclusive trademark rights until 2013.

New Apple Concept Digital Technology Co Ltd, established in Shenzhen in 2005, used the pattern of an apple with two wings as its logo. It put the pattern on its products, wrappings and website.

The court said the logo looked similar to Apple Inc's logo. Apple Inc sued the company in April.

Hunan promotes innovation

Hunan provincial government recently issued a document on promoting industry-university-research partnership to enhance the province's independent innovation capability.

The document lists concrete development objectives for the next three to five years. For example, the research and development (R&D) fund should account for 2 percent of the province's GDP; enterprises' R&D fund should take up 85 percent in the whole society; the application rate of science and technology achievements should exceed 90 percent; added-value of hi-tech industries should account for more than 20 percent in GDP; and 50 technological innovation strategic alliances should be established in leading enterprises, the dominant industries and regional economic cooperation.

The provincial government will arrange a special fund of 500 million yuan for promoting industry-university research partnerships in Hunan.

Court, Internet society pact

Haidian District Court and the Internet Society of China recently signed an agreement on mediation commission and formally started the cooperation between the two sides.

In the future, the cases concerning network IPR will be mediated by the Internet Society of China first, and the intermediation letters have legal effect.

In order to reduce the litigation costs for Internet companies and save legal resources, the court joined forces with the Internet Society of China, and set up the Mediation Centers in September this year. So far, 45 Internet companies have submitted the letters of intent for mediation to the center.

The general time limit for mediation is 15 days. If they fail to reach an agreement, the legal proceedings will continue. If the two sides reach a mediated settlement, the parties can apply for civil mediation letter issued by the court.

R2G deal with Media Player

R2G, a legal digital music distribution company in China, recently announced the integration of its digital music store, wawawa into Microsoft's Windows Media Player to provide China's growing Internet audience with more than 1 million recordings of international and domestic independent music. This is the first time a Chinese domestic company has cooperated with Media Player to sell Chinese independent music, and created a new way to protect musicians' copyrights on the Internet.