IP scene

Beijing

SIPO lauds patent agencies

The sixth intellectual property rights seminar was held from May 21 to 23. He Hua, deputy commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office, said at the event that service organizations are playing an increasingly important role in patent management. He suggested patent agencies extend their business chains and improve services. China currently has 1,141 patent agencies with more than 11,400 agents.

Legal Daily

Liaoning

Police foil electric wire ring

The Dalian city police recently announced its crackdown on a group of suspects selling electric wires with counterfeit trademarks. They said they found the group purchased wires packaged with the well-known Jincheng brand name in Hebei province and sold them at two locations in Dalian, Liaoning province, in early April. The police then began their crackdown on May 14 and raided two hideouts, seizing more than 1,000 spools of wire. One of the suspects said their illegal business started in 2012 and made more than 2 million yuan ($322,600).

News.cnr.cn

Hunan

Local IP contest wraps up

The National University of Defense Technology and Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co Ltd each won at the 2015 intellectual property rights knowledge contest in Hunan province, which ended on May 23. Co-hosted by provincial IP and education authorities, the contest attracted teams from 22 regional universities - six of whom made it to the finals - along with six companies. Questions in the four-hour final round covered IP-related laws and regulations.

Xinhua News Agency

Anhui

Regional filings up 43.3%

Companies and individuals in the province filed 49,960 invention patent applications in 2014, a rise of 43.3 percent from the previous year, according to a report by the State Intellectual Property Office last week. Both figures topped provinces in Central China. The ownership of invention patents per 10,000 residents in Anhui was 3.07 by the end of April, up 41.2 percent year-on-year. The growth ranked first among Central China provinces and second nationwide.

Anhui Daily

Jiangsu

Firms beef up trade shields

The Nantong industry and commerce administration launched a campaign for companies earlier this month to better protect their trade secrets, conducting surveys with the city's key enterprises on how they currently protect their trade secrets, organizing promotional campaigns to brief them on related laws and regulations, and helping companies improve how they can keep their business information. It will also cooperate with other authorities and law enforcement. There will be training programs in the next month.

JIANGSU.GOV.CN

Shanxi

Expo hosts trademark sale

An exhibition of more than 1,000 trademarks was held in Xi'an on May 23 as part of the 19th Investment & Trade Forum for Cooperation Between East & West China. The trademarks were from 18 regions along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. For the first time, a trademark auction was held during the forum, where the catering service trademark Haokelai was auctioned at 500,000 yuan ($80,600), and cosmetics trademark Jiaozhiguan at 80,000 yuan.

Xi'an Daily

Guangdong

City sets up dispute panel

Foshan established a mediation commission on May 21 to settle patent disputes. Many companies within the city have said it is too costly to safeguard their intellectual property rights through legal procedures because patent lawsuits in Foshan are heard at the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court, founded in late 2014. Wu Yuming, chief of the IP rights protection assistance center in Foshan, said more companies will choose nonjudicial approaches to solve patent disputes, with an increased need for mediation.

Pearl River Times