Project Administrator
Patent & Anti-Unfair Competition
Weltmeister is Ruled to Pay the Damages of About $1 Million in First Instance
Recently, the High People’s Court of Shanghai municipality made the first instance judgement for the intellectual property dispute between Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd and Weltmeister (an electric car brand).
The court ruled Weltmeister pay Geely $1 million in damages, including economic losses of about $730,000 and the expenses to stop the infringement of about $295,000. In addition, Weltmeister shall stop using the drawings of the 5 auto parts used in model EX5, for the information it contains should belong to Geely, according to the court. (Dec. 28th, 2022, m.ce.cn)
Statistics
About 30,000 Cases Involved Trademark Infringement and Patent Counterfeiting were Handled by Market Regulatory Authorities in the First Three Quarters of 2022
In the first three quarters of 2022, the market regulators nationwide organized special actions of IP law enforcement, to further enhance the governance of key fields, important goods and major markets. These actions played a positive role in forming deterrence to offenders, protecting legitimate rights and interests of right holders and consumers, maintaining the order of market economy and creating a favorable business environment.
From January to September, about 360,000 cases were investigated and handled through these actions. Among them, nearly 30,000 cases involved trademark infringement and patent counterfeiting. Moreover, the authorities sent 32,000 officers to carry out law enforcement actions in major physical markets of frequent IP right infringement and counterfeiting. (Dec. 20th, 2023, ipraction.gov.cn)
China Rejected 3,192 Preemptive Trademark Registrations in 2022
The statistics from the just-closed meeting of the Directors of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) show that in 2022, the CNIPA continued to maintain a high-pressure on cracking down on preemptively registered trademarks out of bad faith with 3,192 trademarks such as "Bing Dwen Dwen" and "la’eeb" quickly rejected. The CNIPA restricted 3,522 trademarks suspected of malicious hoarding from transfer, declared 2,629 trademarks invalid ex officio and transferred 110 clues regarding suspected malicious trademark applications and the cases with negative impact to local authorities. The CNIPA keeps sending out signals of strict management, and the industry environment will continue to improve. (Jan. 9th, 2023, China Market Regulatory News)
IP Policy-Related
CNIPA Released 2022 China Patent Survey Report and Evaluation Report on 2022 China Intellectual Property Development Status
The CNIPA recently released the 2022 China Patent Survey Report and the Evaluation Report on 2022 China Intellectual Property Development Status.
These two reports make a thorough analysis of the current situation of Chinese intellectual property from the perspectives of patent transfer and transformation, patent protection, intellectual property protection environment, and patent international competitiveness. (Dec. 28th, 2022, CNIPA)
Others
Chinese Academic Database Giant CNKI was Fined over $12 Million for Monopoly
China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) launched an antitrust investigation against CNKI in May.
The result showed that the CNKI has abused its dominant position since 2014. More specifically, CNKI has been selling its database services at exorbitant prices through continuous, large increases in service prices and indirect hikes from splitting databases; CNKI has signed exclusive cooperation agreements that prohibit academic journal publishers and universities from authorizing any other third parties to use academic journals, or doctoral and master's dissertations, among other academic papers. CNKI has also used multiple rewards and penalties to ensure the implementation of exclusive partnerships.
According to Article 57 and Article 59 of the Anti-Monopoly Law, and considering the nature, degree, duration, the consequence of eliminating the unlawful act, and other factors comprehensively, SAMR made the administrative decision based on the law on Dec. 26th, 2022, ruling the CNKI shall stop the law-violating activities and imposing a fine about $12.6 million, which is amounting to 5% of its 2021 domestic sales revenue of about $260 million. (Dec. 26th, 2022, thepaper.cn)
