Peimeng · March 15-21 China IP Newsletter
① Fair competition is a must for the healthy development of China’s digital economy
------NPC and CPPCC representatives heated discussion on improving anti-monopoly legislation and law enforcement
Thirteen years of sharpening a sword. On March 8, the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee's work report showed that, according to the legislative work plan, this year will amend the Anti-Monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China
"The digital economy is the future of the world." The Anti-Monopoly Law, known as the Constitution of the Market Economy, plays an important role in maintaining fair competition and releasing the vitality of the market. Perfecting anti-monopoly legislation and law enforcement and creating a fair market environment for competition are the necessary questions to regulate the healthy development of digital economy.
Antitrust is imperative
On December 14, 2020, the State Administration of Market Regulation announced that Alibaba, China Literature and Fengzhao failed to declare and implement business concentration cases according to law.
In view of the chaos of community group buying "burning money for market", on December 22, the State Administration of Market Supervision and the Ministry of Commerce held an administrative guidance meeting to standardize community group buying order, and clearly put forward the "nine shall not" requirements such as "shall not abuse the independent pricing power, implement the abuse of market dominant position behavior, and use the data advantage to" kill the mature ".
On December 24, the State Administration for Market Regulation announced that it had placed on file an investigation into Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's alleged monopolistic practices, including "one of two options", according to the law.
"Internet platform companies' illegal practice of 'one or the other' and other suspected monopolistic practices have not only disrupted the normal order of market competition, but also caused great damage to the legitimate rights and interests of small and medium-sized enterprises and consumers." Li Zhengguo, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and vice chairman of the Sichuan Province Lawyers Association, said, "The frequent anti-monopoly attacks by China's market regulators have clearly sent a strong signal that neither online nor offline can become a place outside the antitrust law."
Improve anti-monopoly legislation
"The work report of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress explicitly mentioned revising the Anti-Monopoly Law, indicating that strengthening anti-monopoly regulation is an inevitable requirement for building a new pattern of development, building a high-level socialist market economic system, and comprehensively advancing reform and opening up, as well as an inherent need for promoting high-quality development." In the opinion of Huang Yong, director of the Legal Committee of the Beijing Municipal Committee of Civil Construction and director of the Competition Law Center of the University of International Business and Economics, revising the anti-monopoly law on this occasion is not only to absorb China's existing anti-monopoly law enforcement and judicial experience, but also to solve the new problems brought about by digital technology.
"The era of the digital economy has arrived, and improving anti-monopoly laws and regulations is an inevitable requirement for the development of the digital economy." Yang Song, deputy to the National People's Congress and vice president of Liaoning University, said, "The nature, boundary and operation of data rights and other issues need to be addressed by the anti-monopoly law and related regulations."
From: China Market Regulatory News
Date: March 15, 2021
② A major online copyright infringement case cracked down in China Hubei: users top-up over 60 million and 15 criminals detained
Recently, the police in Huanggang, Hubei successfully cracked down a suspected Internet copyright infringement case, arrested 15 suspects, and eliminated the original code providers of copyright infringement criminal groups, game agents, operating agents, technical operation and maintenance, server leasing providers and providers. The fourth party paid and settled the criminal gang and destroyed the entire chain of the gang. More than 980,000 yuan of cash was collected on the spot and more than 6.2 million yuan of funds involved in the case were frozen.
On December 25, 2020, the Huanggang Public Security Bureau's Cyber Security Detachment discovered during its work: a criminal group headed by Huanggang member Wang Moumou illegally obtained a mobile online game version and opened a studio in a rental house in Huangzhou. With the permission of the copyright owner, it is copied and distributed on the Internet and arranged for operation and maintenance by special personnel. Through multi-channel promotion, it attracts game players to recharge. There are more than two million recharge personnel and the recharge amount is more than 60 million yuan.
On January 6, 2021, the Huanggang Public Security Bureau’s Cyber Security Detachment filed a case for Wang XX and others suspected of copyright infringement. It lasted more than two months. After online research and analysis, the organization structure, identity, residence, and office location of the member were basically found out.
On March 5, the Huanggang Public Security Bureau organized more than 60 police forces to carry out a centralized network collection operation. The Internet Security Detachment mobilized Tuanfeng, Macheng, Xishui, Qichun, and Wuxue Internet security police to participate, and patrolled special police and economic with the strong support of police investigations, drug control, criminal investigations and other relevant police types, the participating police went to Wuhan, Shenzhen, Baoding, Lianyungang, Taihe, Zhengzhou, Changsha, and Xiamen to carry out arrests.
As of March 7, a total of 15 criminal suspects were arrested, more than 980,000 yuan in cash was collected on the spot, 65 mobile phones, 83 bank cards, 27 computers, 1 vehicle, 5 bank USB shields, and 5 USB flash drives were seized. There were 29 mobile hard drives, 108 bank accounts involved in the case frozen, and more than 6.2 million yuan of funds involved in the case were frozen.
At present, all 15 suspects have been taken criminal detention compulsory measures.
③ Beijing Intellectual Property Office actively cooperate with patent right affirmation departments to establish linkage mechanism between administrative adjudication and right affirmation
------A new mode of "one-stop" settlement of patent infringement disputes
From: China Intellectual Property News Date: March 16, 2021
“It took only one day to successfully resolve the infringement disputes between the two parties.” On June 13, 2019, the Beijing Municipal Intellectual Property Office passed a joint oral hearing to discuss the dispute between Roller Coaster (Beijing) Catering Management Co., Ltd. and Weightlessness. (Beijing) Catering Management Co., Ltd.'s administrative ruling on patent infringement disputes (hereinafter referred to as administrative ruling on patent infringement) was heard, and the fast and efficient ruling was well received by the parties involved.
The case is an epitome of Beijing Intellectual Property Office's exploration to quickly solve patent infringement disputes and promote the rapid protection of intellectual property rights. The relevant person in charge of the bureau of intellectual property protection in introduce to our reporter, in view of the existing in the patent rights of problem such as "long time and high cost", the Beijing intellectual property office of the under the guidance of the state intellectual property office of the support, actively cooperate with patent right verification department, establish patent administrative ruling and patent approval procedures of linkage mechanism. "Up to now, we have carried out joint trials of more than 10 important typical cases, achieved the convergence and consistency of the judgment standards for patent infringement and affirmation of patent rights, handled administrative adjudication cases of patent infringement quickly and efficiently, saved the cost of rights protection for the parties involved, and achieved good social effects."
Innovate the trial mode and solve the problem of safeguarding rights
In March 2020, eight localities, including Beijing, Hebei, Shanghai and Jiangsu, carried out demonstration construction of administrative adjudication for patent infringement as the first batch of pilot projects.
As a pilot unit for the demonstration construction of patent infringement administrative adjudication, Beijing Intellectual Property Office has actively carried out the demonstration construction pilot work. In recent years, the Beijing intellectual property office accepts each year more than 300 cases of patent infringement disputes, how to fast and efficient treatment of infringement disputes, cracking problem of patent rights "long", the agency administrative ruling way of working, positive innovation with patent infringement and patent approval department cooperation, creatively put forward the "joint review" of the new model patent infringement administrative ruling trial (will accept the administrative ruling cases and against the involved patent case to the state intellectual property office of the patent right invalid shall be conducted at the same time, the same place trial), implements the patent administrative ruling and the linkage of the patent right verification procedures, Through the "seamless docking" of the same patent infringement cases and invalid cases, the goal of fast and efficient handling of patent infringement disputes is achieved, and the cost of rights protection of the parties is saved, and the period of rights protection is shortened.
Effectively resolve disputes and win praise from all sides
In recent years, Beijing Intellectual Property Office has tried a number of important typical cases using this new model, which has improved the efficiency of case handling, effectively resolved patent disputes, protected the legitimate rights and interests of the parties, and won praise from all sides.
It is understood that due to the complex patent involved, the State Intellectual Property Office heard the patent invalid case in the morning and the patent infringement administrative adjudication case in the afternoon. The two parties involved reached a settlement after oral trial.
④ Publication of Japan-China-Korea Concordance List of Similar Group Codes (Corresponding to Nice Classification 11th edition, version 2021 (NCL11-2021))
From: JPO Website Date: 12 March 2021
The Japan Patent Office (JPO), the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) and the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) are working on a cooperative project to compile concordance lists that indicate the corresponding relationships among the respective, similar group codes used for trademark examination at the JPO, the CNIPA and the KIPO, based on a trilateral agreement the three offices signed.
Similar group codes are the codes assigned to goods and services that are presumed to be similar to each other in trademark examination. The project aims to improve the predictability of examination results, by encouraging users who file trademark applications with the JPO, the CNIPA or the KIPO to utilize the concordance lists when searching for the existence of already registered trademarks.
As a result of the JPO-CNIPA-KIPO cooperation, the JPO is pleased to publish the Japan-China-Korea Concordance List of Similar Group Codes corresponding to Nice Classification, 11th edition, Version 2021 (NCL(11-2021)), which came into effect on January 1, 2021.
The JPO-CNIPA-KIPO will also proceed with this project in the future.
⑤ Attention！Not all apples can be called “Aksu apples” !
From: China Intellectual Property News Date: March 16, 2021
Among the many apple varieties, the rock-sugar apple from Aksu Prefecture in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is popular among consumers for its crisp, sweet taste. However, in the face of the market sales of a wide range of beautiful things in eyes "Aksu Apple", many consumers will have such confusion: which is authentic? Recently, the Fujian Provincial High People's Court (hereinafter referred to as the Fujian Provincial High Court) concluded a dispute involving the infringement of Aksu Apple's geographical indication certification trademark.
Because think quanzhou city in fujian province, some fruit business (hereinafter referred to as a firm) on the sales packaging bearing the words "aksu" apple behavior such as alleged infringement of the association has 5918994 "aksu text and figure" geographical indication prove trademark rights (hereinafter referred to as the geographical indication marks involved), aksu area apple association (hereinafter referred to as akzo apple association) will the firm sued to the court, and claim the economic loss. However, the first instance court did not support the Aksu Apple Association's lawsuit request that a firm did not constitute infringement. Subsequently, Aksu Apple Association filed an appeal. Recently, the Fujian High People's Court made a second judgment on the case, confirming that a firm's prominent use of "Aksu" on Apple products would cause the public to mistake it for being related to the geographical indication certification trademark, which constituted trademark infringement. The firm should stop the infringement and compensate for the economic loss of 5,000 yuan.
In the eyes of industry insiders, the above case is a typical case of dispute over the infringement of geographical indication certification trademark. The judgment of the second instance of this case not only clarified the protection scope of the geographical indication certification trademark involved in the case, but also had strong enlightenment significance for the trial of such cases, and also helped consumers to buy authentic Aksu Apple.
⑥ Innovation Perseveres: International Patent Filings via WIPO Continued to Grow in 2020 Despite COVID-19 Pandemic
From: WIPO website Date: March 2, 2021
International patent applications via WIPO in 2020 continued to grow amid the COVID-19 pandemic’s vast human and economic toll, with leading users China and the U.S. each marking annual growth in filings.
International patent applications filed via WIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), which is one of the widely used metrics for measuring innovative activity, grew by 4% in 2020 to reach 275,900 applications – the highest number ever, despite an estimated drop in global GDP of 3.5%.
China (68,720 applications, +16.1% year-on-year growth) remained the largest user of WIPO’s PCT System, followed by the U.S. (59,230 applications, +3%), Japan (50,520 applications, -4.1%), the Republic of Korea (20,060 applications, +5.2%) and Germany (18,643 applications, -3.7%).
Beyond the top 10, other countries that saw strong growth include Saudi Arabia (956 applications, +73.2%), Malaysia (255 applications, +26.2%), Chile (262 applications, +17.0%), Singapore (1,278 applications, +14.9%) and Brazil (697 applications, +8.4%). Longer term trends point to the globalization of innovation, with Asia accounting for 53.7% percent of all PCT filing activity, versus 35.7% 10 years ago.
Use of the international trademark system dipped, but only slightly. This was expected given that trademarks tend to represent the introduction of new goods and services – both of which slowed as a result of the global pandemic. International trademark applications via WIPO’s Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks decreased by 0.6% to 63,800 in 2020 - the first decline since the global financial crisis of 2008-2009.
The economic fallout from the pandemic hit demand for the protection of industrial designs via the Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs. Demand fell by 15% in 2020 to 18,580 designs – the first decline since 2006.
Worldwide demand for IP rights, which help innovators and enterprises take their ideas to the market, has historically and broadly tracked global economic performance. However, growth over the past decade in the use of WIPO’s global IP services, most notably the PCT, has outperformed global GDP growth.
⑦ Hello Mr. Billionaire was accused of plagiarism in the second trial, The screenwriter and Fun Mahua Pictures are being sued
Soruce: Beijing Daily Date March 18, 2021
Hello Mr. Billionaire is a film released in July 2018. The screenwriter, surnamed Wang, believed that the film had stolen the outline of her original script and sued six defendants, including the screenwriter and Mahua Fun Pictures, at the Beijing Intellectual Property Court for copyright infringement. After the trial, the court of first instance believed that the film involved was different from Ms. Wang's works in terms of specific expression, and Ms. Wang did not propose that the six defendants actually had contact or had the possibility of contact. The appeal of Ms. Wang was rejected in the first instance. Ms. Wang refused to accept, chose to appeal, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court in the afternoon of March 18, the case was heard.
Appellant: Once sent the script to the screenwriter of "Hello Mr. Billionaire"
Ms. Wang worked on the story outline for "The Successor" between July and September 2015. As investors were sought, the script was circulated in small circles. During the trial, Ms Wang said that she had sent her script to Lin Moubao, one of the appelees, via WeChat. However, Ms Wang failed to produce any evidence of this.
"Because the movie was not released until three years later, I changed the terminal equipment, such as the computer, so I can't find the chat records at that time," he said. Wang explained. "An actor friend of mine, who is also the writer of the script, once told Mahua's agent about the story in detail at a social event," she added.
According to Wang, Hello Mr. Billionaire has a lot of similarities with the script of The Inheritor written by Wang in terms of character setting, special events, special scenes and the plot reversal of the ending. Hello Mr. Billionaire, because the film is based on the form of films, and the successor to the script in the form of writing, both in terms of expression, although different, these similarities are not general, general narrative plot, but specific to a certain extent to perceive a particular source of unique appreciate the experience of the plot, the setting should be regarded as the expression of the appellant to originality.
Ms. Wang wants the defendant to stop infringing, make an apology and pay for reasonable expenses.
Producer: The film department is adapted from American films
In response to Wang's appeal, a lawyer representing the six defendants said that "Hello Mr. Billionaire" was based on the film "Brewster's Million Dollar Windfall", which was independently created and adapted from a legal source, and the relationship between the characters and the core story were legally adapted from the source. "The relationship between the two films should be very clear to anyone who has seen them." The lawyer said that some of the similar content that Wang complained about already exists in Brewster's Million Windfall. For example, in the film, the leading actor needs to spend 1 billion yuan within one month without leaving any assets, otherwise the challenge fails. And in "Brewster's Millionaire," there is also a situation where money is wasted. The appealed party asked the court to dismiss the appeal and uphold the original judgment.
The accused denied that there had been any contact
On the cognizance of infringing works, the formula is internationally recognized for a long time: "substantial approximate contact +", the author of a work if the alleged infringement have approached or may come into contact with the plaintiff works protected by copyright law, at the same time the work of the alleged infringement and similar to the plaintiff works between on the substantive content, unless there is a reasonable use, such as legal justification, or can be identified as infringing works.
On this point, the respondent held that the two requirements of "contact + material approximation" did not exist in this case, and the lawyer denied that the two parties had contact before. The lawyer said his client scriptwriter Lin Moubao said she did not know Ms. Wang. But Ms. Wang said that he had served as the screenwriter of the same drama with Lin Moubao in 2015, already know, based on the trust of friends, Ms. Wang did not think much, directly sent the script to Lin Moubao. In this case, the lawyer argued that according to Lin Moubao, the two people in an earlier play, is successively entered the cast, do not know each other.
⑧ 【Case】IQIYI is suing Station B, Disputes related to infringement of the right of network dissemination of works information
Source: The silk road intellectual property Date: March 18, 2021
On the afternoon of March 17, 2021, iQIYI officially sued B for its hot search, triggering heated discussion among netizens.
Recently, Beijing iQIYI Technology Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Kuan Yu Digital Technology Co., Ltd. (Station B) related to infringement of the right to network dissemination of works of information court announcement. The case number is (2021) Beijing 0491, 11434, etc., handled by Beijing Internet Court. The plaintiff is Beijing iQIYI Technology Co., Ltd., and the defendant is Shanghai Kuanyu Digital Technology Co., Ltd. The court date of this case is March 23, 2021.
In response to the incident, one netizen said, "More than half of the rice videos in my favorites were warned by iQIYI copyright. What rights does fanboy 2 violate? How much flow did you get? Ahead of the blood on demand to earn a wave to do cross the river and burn Bridges. "
This is not the first time that iQIYI Sue B station, in May 2018, iQIYI citing violations works information network transmission right will B standing there (haidian court, the reason is that it owns exclusive information network transmission right program "has a hip hop in China" by B station broadcast without authorisation, require bi li bi li immediately stop the infringement and compensate for the losses and reasonable costs 1 million yuan, eventually being paid a total of 53500.
It is reported that not long ago, iQIYI was ordered to pay 20,000 yuan compensation for infringing LeTV's right to spread information about its works online. The judgment shows that the defendant, Beijing iQIYI Technology Co., Ltd., provided online broadcasting services of the works involved to the public on theiQIYI1 website operated by the defendant without the permission of the plaintiff, Xizang LeTV Network Information Technology Co., Ltd., which infringed the plaintiff's right of information online dissemination.
IQIYI argued that it did not infringe on the right to spread information online, that the works involved were uploaded by users, and that the defendant was only an Internet service provider and had done his reasonable duty of care. Finally, the court decided that the defendant iQIYI Company should compensate the plaintiff LeTV Company for the economic loss of 20,000 yuan, and rejected the plaintiff LeTV Company's other litigation claims.
⑨ National Copyright Administration: Last year, the total number of copyright registrations nationwide exceeded 5 million, up 20.37% year on year
In 2020, the total number of copyright registrations nationwide reached 5039543, an increase of 20.37% year-on-year.
According to the statistics of the work registration information of the copyright bureaus of various provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government and the China Copyright Protection Center, a total of 3,316,255 works have been registered nationwide in 2020, a year-on-year increase of 22.75%.
The number of copyright registrations of works across the country has shown a steady growth trend. The more registrations are: 1,004,676 in Beijing, accounting for 30.30% of the total number of registrations; 318,906 in Shanghai, accounting for 9.62% of the total number of registrations; China Copyright Protection Center 290693 Pieces, accounting for 8.77% of the total number of registrations.
In terms of the types of works, the most registered photographic works were 15,10914 pieces, accounting for 45.56% of the total number of registrations; the second was 1,295,415 pieces of fine art works, accounting for 39.06% of the total number of registrations; and the third was 212,797 pieces of literary works, accounting for the total number of registrations. 6.42% of the amount.
According to computer software copyright registration information statistics of the China Copyright Protection Center, a total of 1,722,904 computer software copyright registrations were completed nationwide in 2020, an increase of 16.06% year-on-year.
According to the statistics of copyright pledge registration information of the China Copyright Protection Center, in 2020, a total of 384 copyright pledge registrations were completed nationwide, a year-on-year decrease of 28.49%; the number of contracts involved was 341, a year-on-year decrease of 10.50%; the number of works involved was 1231, a year-on-year decrease of 23.06% ; The amount of main debt involved was 4,058,876,600 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 46.90%; the amount of guarantees involved was 3,925, 243 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 46.24%.
Computer software copyright pledges were registered 327, a year-on-year decrease of 9.42%; the number of contracts involved was 327, a year-on-year decrease of 9.42%; the number of works involved was 1,174, a year-on-year decrease of 17.56%; the amount of the main debt involved was 3,797,342 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 45.73%; involved The guarantee amount was 36694.415 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 45.06%.
