Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Hong Kong Patent Attorney
There are professionals in Hong Kong trying to push for certification of patent attorney / patent agent. That will be an important move for intellectual protection in Hong Kong.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
File a patent in China and claim a Taiwan priority
No matter what was said in the past, if you have first filed a patent in Taiwan (Republic of China), within 12-months' time, you want to file the same patent in China, you cannot claim the priority date of the Taiwan application.
Starting from 22 Nov 2010, you can do that (with a small but).
On 12 Sep 2010, China and Taiwan had agreed to accept and recoginize each other's priority certificate. So for a patent application first filed to Taiwan patent office on or after 12 Sep 2010, the same application can be filed to China patent office after 22 Nov 2010 and claim the priority date of the Taiwan application. When filling in the proper forms, it should state that the first filing office is "Taiwan Region", not Republic of China.
It is good to know that, though two patent offices required filing in Chinese, but in Taiwan, you need to file in Traditional Chinese, while in China, you need Simplified Chinese. And apart from character translation, the use of technical terms are different. Some type of redrafting is required between the two versions.
Starting from 22 Nov 2010, you can do that (with a small but).
On 12 Sep 2010, China and Taiwan had agreed to accept and recoginize each other's priority certificate. So for a patent application first filed to Taiwan patent office on or after 12 Sep 2010, the same application can be filed to China patent office after 22 Nov 2010 and claim the priority date of the Taiwan application. When filling in the proper forms, it should state that the first filing office is "Taiwan Region", not Republic of China.
It is good to know that, though two patent offices required filing in Chinese, but in Taiwan, you need to file in Traditional Chinese, while in China, you need Simplified Chinese. And apart from character translation, the use of technical terms are different. Some type of redrafting is required between the two versions.
Monday, November 8, 2010
China prepare to put in more effort to protect IP rights of foreign enterprise
In a news announcement made on 8th November 2010, Chinese authority reinstate it's effort to protect IP rights of foreign enterprises.
A meeting was held in Chongqing City (重庆) on 7th November 2010 on the subject matter. The head of State Intellectual Property Office said that 100 or more policy had been rolled out annually in the last 5 years.
It was felt that China has developed leading edge technology in some of the fields, including energy, high speed train and information technology, as a nation, China should have interest in protecting itself in the IP area.
I hope foreign enterprises really had felt the effect in the past 5 years and give hope in the coming years. However, it is still not an easy task to deal with local authority, including the court and custom office with issues related to IP, not to mention when you have to deal with local administrative officials if there is a factory making infringement goods.
The Chinese news announcement can be found here.
A meeting was held in Chongqing City (重庆) on 7th November 2010 on the subject matter. The head of State Intellectual Property Office said that 100 or more policy had been rolled out annually in the last 5 years.
It was felt that China has developed leading edge technology in some of the fields, including energy, high speed train and information technology, as a nation, China should have interest in protecting itself in the IP area.
I hope foreign enterprises really had felt the effect in the past 5 years and give hope in the coming years. However, it is still not an easy task to deal with local authority, including the court and custom office with issues related to IP, not to mention when you have to deal with local administrative officials if there is a factory making infringement goods.
The Chinese news announcement can be found here.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Chinese Nobel Prize winner
Just want to let the world know, we have another Nobel Peace Prize winner of Chinese nationality.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner is now serving a 11-years jail term in a prison in North East China. He was charged for co-signing Chapter 2008, promoting human rights in China.
The gentleman is Dr Xiabo LIU. At time of writing, it is believed that Dr Liu is not aware of the prize announcement, Mrs Liu is scheduled to visit him tomorrow.
A common Chinese saying: Liu, go home and have dinner with your family.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner is now serving a 11-years jail term in a prison in North East China. He was charged for co-signing Chapter 2008, promoting human rights in China.
The gentleman is Dr Xiabo LIU. At time of writing, it is believed that Dr Liu is not aware of the prize announcement, Mrs Liu is scheduled to visit him tomorrow.
A common Chinese saying: Liu, go home and have dinner with your family.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Patent as a collateral
Recently as part of the government policy to encourage invention and application of patent from Chinese inventors, banks in China started to use patent right as part of collateral for a commercial loan. As of September 2010, there are 24 banks and 16 guarantee companies in China accepted such property as collateral.
Currently, the total cumulative loan portfolio of the amount RMB25 billion (around USD3.7 billion) was borrowed in 2000 projects that involved at least one patent right as part of collateral, that is, around USD1.8 million per project. According to the report dated September 30, 2010, the new loans approved in the first eight months of this year tallied to 77 cases that involved 504 patent rights with a total of of RMB 4 billion (around USD 600 million).
However, the report did not disclose the average value of each patent right in each loan and what other assets were involved in the loan application process. So in the end, may be the the banks are still considering the hard asset that are used to pledge the loan, and then throw in any intellectual property just to please the government officials. The report also mentioned that the current policy of using patent right as loan collateral is still at it's pilot stage since December 2008 and we are not sure how aggressive banks and other financial institutions to take on the surge in patent application from Chinese inventors.
Currently, the total cumulative loan portfolio of the amount RMB25 billion (around USD3.7 billion) was borrowed in 2000 projects that involved at least one patent right as part of collateral, that is, around USD1.8 million per project. According to the report dated September 30, 2010, the new loans approved in the first eight months of this year tallied to 77 cases that involved 504 patent rights with a total of of RMB 4 billion (around USD 600 million).
However, the report did not disclose the average value of each patent right in each loan and what other assets were involved in the loan application process. So in the end, may be the the banks are still considering the hard asset that are used to pledge the loan, and then throw in any intellectual property just to please the government officials. The report also mentioned that the current policy of using patent right as loan collateral is still at it's pilot stage since December 2008 and we are not sure how aggressive banks and other financial institutions to take on the surge in patent application from Chinese inventors.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)