Recently, our firm won the first instance of an administrative litigation case for invalidation of an invention patent, in which it is ruled that the invention patent should be comp...
Introduction In the chemical field, it is difficult to seek invalidation of a patent claiming to have achieved unexpected technical effect. This case provides a strategy for success...
Huawei and EDMI Signed a Global IoT Patent License Agreement
Recently, Huawei and EDMI, a world-renowned provider of smart metering solutions, announced that they have signed a patent license agreement based on the principle to be fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND). Under the agreement, Huawei will license EDMI the Cellular IoT Standard Essential Patent (SEP), covering NB-IoT, LTE-M, and LTE Cat.1 standards. The signing of this agreement marks Huawei’s SEP strength recognized again in the cellular IoT field, and EDMI can better protect its own business and provide comprehensive legal protection to its clients. (April 11, 2024 Huawei’s official website)
Personality Rights
The First Instance Judgment Pronounced on the First AI-Generated Voice Infringement Case in China
The first case of AI-generated voice personality right infringement in China was trialed and pronounced by the Beijing Internet Court for the first instance. The court found that the plaintiff, as a dubbing artist, had his voice rights and interests extended to the AI voice involved in the case, and that the defendant’s use of the plaintiff’s voice and the development of the AI text-to-speech products involved in the case had not been legally authorized, which constituted infringement. As such, the defendant should compensate the plaintiff for various losses of CNY 250,000 (approximately USD 34,549), and apologize in writing.
In this case, the plaintiff, Yin, was a dubbing artist who found that the works produced by others using his dubbing were widely circulated on several well-known apps. Through voice screening and tracking, it was found that the voices in the above works came from the text-to-speech products in the platform operated by an intelligent technology company in Beijing, and the user could convert the text into speech by entering the text and adjusting the parameters.
The first-instance judgment of this case was pronounced and clearly determined that under the premise of being identifiable, the scope of protection of natural persons’ voice rights and interests can be extended to AI-generated voices, and in the determination of the recognizability of AI-generated voices, the use of the perpetrator, and whether ordinary audiences in the relevant field can identify them should be comprehensively considered as the judgment criterion. (April 25, 2024 Beijing News)
Government Affairs
The Number of National Intellectual Property Protection Centers under Construction and
in Operation Reached 71 Nationwide
Recently, the China National Intellectual Property Administration announced that there are 71 national intellectual property protection centers under construction and in operation across the country, distributed in 28 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government), with a provincial coverage rate of more than 90%, of which four municipalities directly under the central government have established intellectual property protection centers. (April 16, 2024 Xinhua News Agency)
Statistics
Official Reports Published
Recently, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released the “2023 China Patent Survey Report” and the white paper “China’s Intellectual Property Rights Protection in 2023”.
The survey report statistics show that at current stage, the effect of China’s patent transformation and application has been steadily improved, the innovation of industry-university-research cooperation has achieved remarkable results, and the level of intellectual property rights protection has continued to improve.
According to the white paper, approximately 462,200 new first-instance civil cases of intellectual property rights were accepted by courts across the country, 7,049 examination and arrest cases of intellectual property rights infringement were accepted by procuratorial authorities across the country, and approximately a total of 40,000 cases of infringement of intellectual property rights and the production and sale of counterfeit and shoddy goods were established by public security organs across the country; By the end of 2023, the effective number of invention patents in China reached 4,990,600, with a year-on-year increase of 18.5%; The number of valid registered trademarks in China reached 46,146,400, with a year-on-year increase of 8.1%. The total number of copyright registrations was 8,923,900, with a year-on-year increase of 40.46%. A total of 2,508 geographical indication products have been approved for protection. In 2023, 14,278 applications for new varieties of agricultural plants were accepted, with a year-on-year increase of 27.5%, and 1,906 applications for rights to new varieties of forest and grass plants were accepted, and 915 were granted. (April 15, 2024 China National Intellectual Property Administration)
The Full Text of “Judicial Protection Status of Intellectual Property Rights
in Chinese Courts (2023)” Published
The Supreme People’s Court (“SPC”) recently released the “Judicial Protection Status of Intellectual Property Rights in Chinese Courts (2023)”. According to the statistics, in 2023, courts across the country accepted more than 540,000 new intellectual property cases of various types including first-instance, second-instance and retrial, and the number of trials concluded was basically the same as the number of newly accepted cases, with an increase of 3.41% and 0.13% respectively over 2022.
According to statistics, in 2023, courts across the country applied punitive damages in 319 cases, with a year-on-year increase of 117%, and the amount of damages awarded was CNY 1.16 billion (approximately USD 160.27 million), with a year-on-year increase of 3.5 times. The SPC concluded the “Pan Pan” trademark infringement and unfair competition dispute case, and applied 4 times punitive damages to the act of malicious free ride of goodwill, with an award of more than CNY 100 million (approximately USD 13.82 million); The SPC also trialed and concluded the case of infringement of the technical secret of “rubber antioxidant”, where a compensation of CNY 202 million (approximately USD 27.91 million) was awarded, setting a new high record in the amount of compensation awarded in similar cases. (April 22, 2024 by the Supreme People’s Court of China)
WIPO Released World Intellectual Property Report 2024
Recently, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released the World Intellectual Property Report 2024.
The report analyzed nearly 40 million patent applications, more than 70 million scientific papers, and more than USD 300 trillion worth of exports of goods and services and found a high concentration of innovation. Over the past 20 years, the top eight countries accounted for 50% of exports, 60% of scientific publications and 80% of international patents granted, and China, India and South Korea had significantly increased their technological diversification.
The report constructs a novel methodology that maps the innovation capacity of more than 150 WIPO member states over a 20-year period, pointing out precisely how different countries can promote their economy diversity in the areas of technology, science and exports. (May 6, 2024 Sohu.com)
