Major acts in recent days (08-12-29)

Patent law changes

Chinese inventors who wish to apply for patents for their inventions in foreign countries must go through government scrutiny first to find out if the inventions employ national secrets, according to a draft amendment to the country's patent law, Xinhua reported.

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, recently discussed proposed amendments to the 23 year-old Patent Law at the opening session of its bimonthly meeting.

The amendment says inventions that have not been subject to security checks will not be granted Chinese patents, and that those who leak national secrets by failing to apply for the security checks will be punished according to the law. The amendment applies to all inventions completed in China.

Another proposed amendment is that foreign nationals or institutions must find a patent agency to represent them in applying for patents in China and in other patent-related matters.

The amendment says patent holders or other concerned parties may ask the court to stop acts that breach their patent rights before a lawsuit could be filed. The court must make a decision within 48 hours.

The Patent Law has had two major revisions in the past.

China, Korea copyright meet

Copyright Protection Center of China and the Copyright Commission of the Republic of Korea recently co-hosted an exchange meeting on copyright protection in Beijing.

China and the Republic of Korea have cooperated in copyright protection for movies, online games and other works and copyright trade has become an important link between the two countries, Zou Jianhua, deputy director of the Copyright Protection Center of China, said at the meeting. The Copyright Protection Center of China and Copyright Commission of the Republic of Korea have played an important role in promoting copyright trade between the two countries, Zou said.

Officials from Beijing Copyright Bureau and the Copyright Protection Center of China, experts and lawyers introduced China's copyright trade protection, network copyright infringement and copyright remedies at the meeting. Korean representatives were briefed on the copyright law amendments and the latest cases of copyright protection. The two sides also discussed copyright protection issues in the two countries.

Samsung loses lawsuit

Samsung Electronics Co has been ordered to pay 50 million yuan to a company in East China's Zhejiang province for infringing the latter's dual-mode cellphone patent, Xinhua reported.

The Intermediate People's Court of Hangzhou made the ruling.

Zhejiang-based Holley Communications alleged last year that cellphones made by Sumsung violated its patent that allowed cellphones to operate on both CDMA and GSM networks.

"Samsung has sold more than 700,000 cellphones that contain Holley's patented technologies. The patents are still on sale. The compensation is only part of the sales," Ge Chen, Holley's executive director, told Xinhua.

The patent of CDMA/GSM double-mode mobile communication method and its communication equipment was obtained in 2002, Xinhua reported.

This has been the largest compensation in China's cellphone industry, but officials of Holley said they would seek additional compensation.

The 20-month patent dispute started when Holley filed the lawsuit in April 2007 calling for a halt of the violation and seeking compensation.

A month later, Sumsung requested that China's State Intellectual Property Office declare that the patent was invalid. The court opened the session in May this year after the SIPO declared it valid.

Fujian patent protection

The Sixth Session of the Standing Committee of the 11th Fujian Provincial People's Congress recently approved regulations for Fuzhou city on patent protection and promotion. This is the first local regulation by Fujian province regarding patent protection.

The regulations say the Fuzhou government will establish a special IP fund to reward the units and individuals with patent rights of invention, award-winning patent projects and IP pilot project demonstration enterprises. A Fuzhou patent prize will be held biennially to encourage people to make contributions to promote the economic and social development of Fuzhou through inventions. Inventors with patent rights will also be rewarded.

The regulations say that important projects funded by the government that involve patent rights should first submit patent assessment reports. Patent asset evaluations will be conducted before handling state-owned assets that involve patent asset changes.

The regulations also make the possession of patent rights and the establishment of a patent administration system as the basis of recommending and granting the titles that can reflect an enterprise or institution's innovative capacity, affirming technological centers, approving the research and development projects of patent technologies with governmental financial support, and examining and appraising scientific and technological awards related to patent projects.

The regulations also stipulate measures against repeated rights infringement, patent infringements and law-breaking activities.