IP Café┃Global IP News of the Week
Good morning. Welcome come to this week’s IP Cafe. Here’s Fino. Now let’s take a cup of coffee and enjoy the following five minutes with me.
Let’s quick browse the headlines:
· Digital Canton Fair Reflects New Trend in China's Economy
· Yantai Included as Key Chinese City for IP Construction
· China Strengthens Photo Copyright Protection
· EUIPO Looking for IP Pro Bono Providers
· INTA CEO Talks Virtual Conferences and Digital Transformation
· SPC Head Urges Full Implementation of Civil Code, Further Improvements in Civil Trials
The 127th session of the China Import and Export Fair, held online for the first time in its 63-year history, reflects a new trend of China's economic development.
The twice-yearly event, also known as the Canton Fair, has been considered the largest global trade fair in scale since the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Attracting some 25,000 participating companies exhibiting 1.8 million products, the digital fair is an unprecedented trade initiative, breaking through the limitations of time and space.
Hundreds of thousands of global buyers and millions of Chinese foreign trade professionals will be able to negotiate online 24 hours a day during the 10-day event, injecting new momentum into global trade.
The opening of the 127th Canton Fair online on June 15 not only reflects China's energetic internet industry development, new digital infrastructure including 5G, cloud computing, big data, AI and IoT, and manufacturing capacity. It also shows China's determination to stabilize foreign trade and commitment to embrace globalization, making contributions to the world economy.
The National Intellectual Property Administration unveiled a list of key cities for the construction of an intellectual property (IP) operation service system in 2020. A total of 11 cities across China were included on the list.
Yantai is the only city in Shandong province to be included on the list and will receive 150 million yuan from the central government to be used to build an IP operation service system.
The move is meant to turn certain cities into models for how IP can promote regional economies and industrial innovation.The Yantai Intellectual Property Protection Center was completed and began operating in 2017, and nearly 15,000 new invention patents have been applied for since then.
So far, 163 Yantai enterprises have received IP standard certification, and 15 national IP demonstration enterprises have been cultivated in the city, ranking first in the province.
Over the next three years, the city plans to ramp up efforts to establish a large-scale international integrated IP operation service system to further contribute to the development of IP operations nationwide.
China is striving to enhance the protection of copyright of photographic works and promote the establishment of a long-term copyright protection mechanism for such works, said the National Copyright Administration.
Legal protection of copyright of news events-themed photographic works was highlighted in a circular issued by the administration.
It also regulated on stock photography providers' misbehavior, including fake copyright and false authorization, as well as calling on relevant parties to cooperate, and jointly improve the copyright protection of photographic works.
Noting increasing online photo copyright infringement and piracy in recent years, the administration has investigated and dealt with a number of such cases, pledging more protection efforts from copyright authorities at all levels.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the European Union were severely impacted by the COVID-19, threatening massive job losses and closures.
The EUIPO COVID-19 pro bono hub offers a tailor-made service to match SMEs to providers of free-of-charge intellectual property legal representation and advice throughout the EU during this unprecedented period.
The service focuses on the needs of small businesses, ensuring that they get the IP-related legal advice they need to protect and maximise their rights, and the proper professional representation to defend those rights when challenged. Businesses will be able to obtain practical guidance on how to handle their IP legal matters, which will help them refocus their attention on overcoming the competitive and economic challenges caused by the pandemic.
The International Trademark Association announced last month that its annual conference will be held virtual in this November.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced IP associations around the world to postpone their conferences this year, either cancelling them entirely or making the move online. The International Trademark Association is no exception, but as CEO Etienne Sanz de Acedo says, it’s been planning a digital transformation for some time—the pandemic has just forced its hand.
“It became very clear that the best option would be to combine the annual meeting and the leadership meeting to avoid too much travel for members,” Sanz de Acedo says.
Zhou Qiang, secretary of the leading Party members’ group and president of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC), urged courts to fully implement the Civil Code and further improve the quality of civil trials.
Zhou made the remarks at a special meeting to study the newly adopted Civil Code held on June 12. He said that courts nationwide should coordinate implementation of the Civil Code with regular epidemic prevention and control, optimization of the business environment, dissolution of big risks and carrying out of precise poverty alleviation and pollution prevention and control so as to provide strong judicial services and guarantees for bothCOVID-19 prevention and control and economic and social development.
Courts should stick to people-centered philosophy to strengthen civil trials and trial supervision and guidance, especially in the areas of protection of property rights, personality rights, intellectual property rights and the ecological environment, said Zhou.
Those for this week’s news. For more IP events in China, please visit www.chinaiptoday.com. See you next Saturday and enjoy the nice weekend.
