Project Administrator
Patent
Five Chinese Enterprises Win in US Patent Investigation over Nose Swab Product for COVID
Five Chinese enterprises win in Section 337 investigations, and their product, a nose swab test for COVID is determined not infringement of three patents owned by Italy companies Copan Italia S.p.A and Copan Industries. (Nov. 10th, jiemian.com)
Trademark & Anti-Unfair Competition
Strengthening Intellectual Property Protection-Germany Brand Raumplus’ Request for about $7.16 Million Compensation is Fully Supported
The High People’s Court of Jiangsu Province recently concluded a trademark infringement and unfair competition case involving a German company as the plaintiff, and its claim of about $7.16 million compensation was fully supported.
“raumplus德禄” is a renowned customized furniture brand of Raumplus GmbH & Co.KG and Raumplus GmbH (the plaintiffs), which enjoys a good reputation and high popularity in the field of furniture.
The defendants Raumplus Shanghai and Raumplus Nantong were joint venture companies set up by Raumplus GmbH and another party not involved in this case and two parties agreed that Raumplus GmbH & Co.KG would give authorization for the use of relevant trademarks in China to the defendants during the joint venture. Once the joint venture terminates, the defendants should stop using the relevant trademarks and change their company name. However, the defendants did not stop the use of the German company's trademark and other intellectual property rights. Instead, they made a rush registration of the trademarks of “德禄” and relevant, as well as the domain name of “德禄.com”. The defendants also opened large-scale distribution stores nationwide and undertook bulk engineering projects and business by promoting themselves as the high-end customized brands of raumplus.
The court held that the defendants continued their infringement act after the plaintiff issued multiple infringement warnings. Not only did they not reduce the use of the trademark at issue, but also carried out large-scale investment attractions nationwide. After entering the litigation proceedings, they even rushed to register the trademark identical or similar to the plaintiff’s trademark "raumplus" and the domain name and maliciously filed invalidation against the plaintiff's trademark involved in the case delaying the plaintiff's enforcement procedures. Given the infringement was malicious and the circumstances were serious, punitive damage was applied in this case, and the plaintiff's claim of about $7.16 million was fully supported. (Nov. 7th, xinhuanet.com)
Copyright & Anti-Unfair Competition
The High People’s Court of Guangdong Province Made Final Judgement Ruling Mini1 Pay NetEase about $7.16 Million in Damages
Recently, the High People’s Court of Guangdong province made final judgement over a copyright infringement and unfair competition case brought by Guangdong NetEase and Shanghai NetEase against Shenzhen Mini1. The court determined Mini1 constituted unfair competition, ruling the defendant to remove 230 infringing elements from the game involved and pay NetEase about $7.16 million in damages which is said to be the highest amount in domestic game infringement cases.
The court held that Mini World of Mini1 and Minecraft of NetEase are highly similar in terms of gameplay rules, and there are many overlaps in the details of game elements that have exceeded the limit of reasonable reference. Mini1 constituted unfair competition by directly grabbing the key of others’ intellectual achievements and the core personalized commercial value by plagiarizing the design of game elements, and obtaining others’ business profit by improper means. Therefore, the court made the aforementioned judgement. (Nov. 30th, High People’s Court of Guangdong Province)
Exemplary Cases
The Supreme People’s Court Release the Exemplary Cases of Anti-Monopoly and Anti-Unfair Competition
The Supreme People's Court held a press conference on Nov. 17 to update the information about the work of people’s court on strengthening anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition and release the exemplary cases in these two fields.
The 10 exemplary cases of anti-monopoly show the following four features:
First, strict sanctions on monopolistic behavior, and strive to eliminate and reduce the risk of monopolistic behavior.
Second, standardize the right enforcement, and clarify the rules of anti-monopoly judicial examination of intellectual property abuse.
Third, focus on hot-spot issues concerning people's livelihood and ensure that the people will obtain actual benefit from fair competition.
Fourth, support and supervise anti-monopoly law enforcement in accordance with the law, and promote coordination and unification of the standards of administrative enforcement and judiciary. (Nov. 17th, the Intellectual Property Court of the SPC)
World Intellectual Property Indicators:
China Overtakes U.S. to the First Place in Number of Valid Patents of 2021
According to the latest report World Intellectual Property Indicators (hereinafter referred to as the report) released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the number of patent, trademark, and design applications reaches new record worldwide in 2021. China takes the lead with about half of the total number of the world.
The report shows that, by the end of 2021, the total number of valid patents worldwide was 16.5 million, up by 4.2%. Among this, China topped with 3.6 million overtaking the U.S (3.3 million), and the following are Japan (2 million), South Korea (1.2 million), and Germany (87,000). (Nov.23rd, Global Times)
