Google is leaving China

I guess everybody knew this already. I just want to pick up (and translate) a few interesting lines that may be non-Chinese reader missed in their daily news.

1. Sending flower illegally.

Once the news was spread around China, there are people in Beijing and Shanghai who sent flower (personally) to Google offices in these two cities. Then certain government departments announced that sending flower to Google offices need pre-approval. That is, a lot of people are sending flower illegally.

2. Someone's comment:

It is not Google leaving China, it is China leaving the world.

3. In twitter, this is the one of the hottest tag: #googlecn.

4. Google removed any filtering in it's search engine in China immediately. All of a sudden, it was reported that search engines of other local Chinese companies also lifted their filtering. Not because they want to support Google. It was reported that they actually use google.cn as their backend (without paying a license fee to Google). What a country of IP protection!

Enjoy the freedom while you can, and tomorrow may be you cannot access gmail in China!

A “Christmas delight/dessert” in China: Re-announcement of Anti-piracy & Pornography Hotlines

Anti-piracy and Pornography Hotlines Re-announced

The above China IP News was announced on 18.12.2009.

Frankly, I find this re-announcement interesting, amusing and juicy while surfing on this website! It is partly because of the timing of this announcement, i.e. the date of the announcement which is just one week before the Christmas time. It is also partly of the rise of the middle-class who adopts a more Westernized style of consumption pattern.

As it is widely known that Chinese are in the rapid rise of power in the first decade of the 21st century, they have a strong knack in aligning with the cosmopolitan lifestyle. It is essential to emphasis the need for the protection of intellectual property rights.

Even there are no public holidays during Christmas time in China, Chinese (especially citizens in major cities) and especially those returning from overseas (the so-called “sea-turtle” in Chinese) are tend to celebrate the Western festivals. They are willing to spend a considerable amount of money on consumption of gourmet and fancy products with their families, friends, colleagues and business partners. They may, intentionally or accidentally, buy pirate products as Christmas gifts.

Hence, the State Intellectual Property Office (“SIPO”) decided to announce the hotlines so as to remind the general public the importance of respecting intellectual property rights while purchasing the products before Christmas and New Year. It also provides the channel for the businesses of selling the legitimate products to report cases of piracy.

Following the long-standing policy on combating pornography, the SIPO would also stress the necessity for reporting pornography through the re-announcement of hotlines.

Incidentally, when there is “re-announcement” for the reporting of illegal products and any pornographic materials, it is an indication of its arising need and the pursuit of authenticity.
So, it is hoped that with the growth of urban middle-class individuals and DINKS (“Dual Income No Kids) in the PRC, they may want to have a taste of traditional Christmas dessert, such as Christmas pudding or gingerbread-man. They would also acknowledge and be concerned of the protection of intellectual property rights.

Dr Liu Xiaobo - Sentenced for 11 years

Dr Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years of prison terms on 25th December 2009, because he wrote several articles about human rights in China. Please join this facebook group to show your support, or to have a brief understanding of what is going on.

SIPO in 30 years

In marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of State Intellectual Property Office of PRC, an article in their web site draw one angle of the history in the past 30-years.

The article address the quantity increased in the past 30-years with a chart showing what they called a steady and prosperous growth. The first Patent Law was enacted on 1st April 1985 and basically no much activity between 1985 and 1998, after hitting the milestone of 100,000 annual patent applications, a major turning point happens in 2000-2001 and the number climbed up drastically. Last year (2008), that increased to more than 800,000 patent application in one year. According to the official line, this reflects the success of the patent system in China.

As a matter of fact, on the day that patent law was enacted, SIPO received 3455 patent application in one day, according to official record.

Fifteen years later, the cumulative total of patent applications reached 1,000,000 in January 2000. The second 1 million patent applications hit SIPO on March 2004, 39 months later. The third 1 million patent applications took less than 30 months, the fourth took 18 months, and the fifth took 16 months in March 2009.

Comparing the same time frame between 1985 and 2008, the GDP growth more than 30 times while the annual patent applications growth close to 90 times.

Here is the link to the article in Chinese with the chart on patent application growth.
http://www.sipo.gov.cn/sipo2008/mtjj/2009/200912/t20091210_484908.html

This is a very impressive growth, and it reflects the China enterprises are using patent protection to protect their invention, and at the same time, foreign enterprises really thinks that is important to apply and get patent granted in China. I also understand that the growth reflects in people turn over in some of the agent firms in China.

The Hong Kong Innovation-Knowledge Enterprise Award

Congratulations to one of my clients, who is one of the award-winners of the “Innovation-Knowledge Enterprise Award” which is co-organized by the Hong Kong Productivity Council and Guangdong Provincial Intellectual Property Office since 2004.

This award is targeted with a view to increase the Intellectual Property (“IP”) management capability of Hong Kong and mainland enterprises. When the enterprises are facing the arising challenges from the Pearl River Delta region due to the economic upsurge, this award serves as a tool to upgrade them from Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) and Original Brand Manufacturer (OBM).

As it is commonly known, or recognized, that there are tremendous infringement products from the mainland China, this award become more important, meaningful and perhaps sarcastic!

My client is a product development and investment company. The main business is to identify product improvement opportunity and invest in the design, whereby intellectual protection is the major vehicle to protect the return on investment.

My client is involved in inventions related to product improvement and new product design. The areas of improvement include improvisation on functionality, durability, cost in production and maintenance. They have the core design and management team resides in Hong Kong and has a manufacturing facility in Dongguan where a team of draftsmen, testing engineers and production workers helps the design, prototyping, testing and pilot run process. With more than 150 workers, the Dongguan factory also produces products that export to North America, Europe and Middle East.

My client has applied and obtained more than 10 patents for design done before 2006. All of these patents are now commercialized and products being sold or licenses granted to US companies. Since 2006, the group has filed more than 15 patent applications per year in the PRC, United States, and European Community. Currently, they own more than 70 patents or patents pending right in these countries/community. Non-exclusive license rights for about one-third of patents pending are granted to companies which expects to market products using these new invention in their respective countries. Of course, we handle most of their intellectual property related work.

Further information about the Award can be found here:

http://www.hkpc.org/html/eng/award_schemes/award_schemes.jsp#awards6

http://www.itc.gov.hk/

http://www.cedb.gov.hk/about/index.htm