Nils Montan, President of the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition, who spoke at the June QBPC General Meeting on hopes for increased cooperation and information exchange between QBPC and IACC, extends his appreciation to the membership.

“I was personally very impressed by the quality of the meeting and the tremendous amount of work and energy obviously poured into the work of the QBPC through the work of the various committees."

"I was also very favorably impressed by the approach that the QBPC takes to the problem of counterfeiting in China. Too often people from outside the country feel that they have some expertise in the subject matter when, in fact, they know little of the Chinese culture and practice. The QBPC provides a special niche in this regard and your views and expertise are so critical to the success of our mutual members.”

For more information about IACC, visit http://www.iacc.org/ .

On July 13, 2006, the National IP Strategy Formulation Leading Group Office (NIPSO) organized a meeting on ‘China National IP Strategy’. Official participants included Mr. Zhang Qin, Deputy Director General of the State IP Office (SIPO), Executive Deputy Director of NIPSO; Ms. Wen Xikai, Secretary General of NIPSO; Mr. Wang Jingchuan, Strategy Formulation Counsel of NIPSO; Mr. Liu Zheng, Director of State Council General Office and Mr. Sun Yongjian, Deputy Director of Legal Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology. QBPC member companies together with various foreign investment companies and associations were invited to the meeting to provide comments on formulation of a long term, sustainable and effective IP strategy for China.

At the meeting, Mr. Zhang Qin announced that the Chinese government is in the process of formulating a national IP strategy which would be sustainable in the long term. He explained that the formulation process will undergo four phases - preparation, research, feedback and piloting.

Mr. Jack Chang of GE raised the concern shared by some foreign companies regarding a stipulation in the Anti-Monopoly Law Draft pertaining to the abuse of IP, which might be biased towards protecting the interests of domestic companies and suggested that the IP abuse clause be taken out from the draft. Mr. Chang further pointed out that Article 218 of Criminal Law, which discriminates against copyright owners, should be revised and the inconsistencies among relevant judicial interpretations fixed. He hopes that the positive examples of computerized case monitoring systems, i.e., Project Golden Quality, a vertical case monitoring system with the Quality Supervision agencies set up by the AQSIQ, and the online information sharing platform set up by the Shanghai Pudong Procuratorate, a horizontal case monitoring system among administrative agencies, police & procuratorate, can be promoted nationwide. Finally, he offered high regards for the Shanghai Initiative, praising the provision under the initiative which allows the PSB to start criminal investigation in IP crimes based on suspicion.

QBPC Vice Chairman Patrick Wang of Nike made various recommendations, including:

Mr. Wu Haitao of Microsoft pointed out that IP enforcement for the software industry requires strengthening. Other key points that Mr. Wu raised included the need to:

Mr. Colin Chen of Johnson & Johnson reiterated the importance of devising an IP code, standardization of enforcement, greater coordination of different IP enforcement agencies and information sharing among enforcement agencies.

Points raised by other representatives from IBM, Dupont, GE, Matsushita, Philips, Rohm & Haas, Disney, Toyota, EU and R&D-based Pharmaceutical Association Committee included:

At the conclusion of the meeting, Mr. Zhang Qin expressed that he hopes to understand more about international regulations and practices concerning IP protection, and by referencing international experiences, China will be aided in formulating its own strategy, relevant to the IPR situation in the country. He closed by saying that when the strategy is formulated, there would be a certain period of time for government agencies to fine-tune certain laws and regulations, at which point the government would welcome suggestions from foreign enterprises.

Over 80 countries worldwide have passed anti-monopoly laws designed to prevent repression of healthy market development, damages to fair competition, and harm to the interests of consumers that may be caused by monopolies. For these same reasons, the Chinese government is taking steps to develop a law to address monopolistic practices. The State Council discussed and passed the Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) Draft on June 7, 2006.

 

The China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment (CAEFI) hosted a meeting on the Anti-Monopoly Law Draft on July 20, 2006, in Beijing. Vice Chair Liu Wanzhong of CAEFI presided over the meeting. Director Zheng Chong of NPC Law Committee was present at the meeting, primarily to hear comments and suggestions from meeting participants. QBPC chair Jack Chang presented suggested changes on behalf of the QBPC at the meeting. The majority of the rest of the participants were from QBPC member companies. A draft of comments prepared by Jack Chang, which covers points raised by the QBPC & ECFIC colleagues, was submitted to CAEFI. CAEFI later submitted its report based on the comments received to the NPC. The Chinese version of both Chang's suggested changes and the CAEFI report are available in the members’ area of the QBPC website.

Meeting participants agreed that the AML is a very important law which could provide a fair competition environment in China. Participants pointed out current problems with the draft law and put forward suggestions for improvement. Key points are as follows:

Director Zheng Chong expressed her appreciation for the above suggestions and indicated that she will take these valuable suggestions into consideration for further research.

To read the comments accumulated by Jack Chang and the CAEFI report, click -HERE-.

 

The Legal Committee held a seminar on IPR evidential rules in civil litigations in conjunction with the Supreme Court in Dongying (Shandong) on July 11-12. Judge Jiang Zhipei, Chief Judge of the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme Court; Mr. Luo Dongchuan, deputy director of the Research Department of the Supreme Court; and judges from the intellectual property tribunals of the high courts of Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shangdong and Hunan, and intermediate courts of Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Changsha, Suzhou, were in attendance at the seminar. Ten QBPC representatives were also present.

Various issues were addressed and discussed in great depth: issues in notarization and legalization of evidence obtained out of PRC jurisdiction; issues in evidence collection and preservation; the legality of various evidence; evidence exchange and verification; expert testimony and technical problems in highly specialized evidence; the allocation and switch of evidentiary liability between plaintiff and defendant; the right of direction of judges; compensation standards; and the binding force of prior decisions, including administrative decisions, criminal court decisions and civil court decisions.

The seminar proved to be an ideal setting for a brainstorm on the current issues in civil litigations involving IPR. It was also a great opportunity for the judges from different provinces to share their experiences in handling the issues. Mr. Sam Li of Rohm & Haas delivered a speech on behalf of QBPC and his speech was well received.

Judge Jiang stated in his closing speech that the judges should continue their research on the issues, and that the Supreme Court will consider judicial interpretations based on their research results. He also expressed the view that judges should maintain their dialogue with the representatives of QBPC in order to benefit from their valuable input.

In closing, Judge Jiang said that the major issue in IPR protection in China at this stage is not the abuse of IPR of foreign companies, but the ineffectiveness of IPR protection and thanked QBPC for our support in this project.

During July 26-28, Urumqi Customs and the QBPC Customs Committee co-organized a training program on customs IPR protection, in Aletai, Xinjiang.

The program was presided over by leading officials from the Urumqi Customs; Feng Xirui and Chuck Qi each delivered a speech on behalf of Customs and rights holders respectively. Participants included representatives from Shanghai Customs, functionaries of Urumqi Customs, Urumqi Airport Customs and branches of Urumqi Customs including Huoerguosi, Tuerduote, Alashankou, Tacheng, Yining, Kashi, Hongqilapu, Aletai and Yierkeshitan, as well as member companies including Adidas, Nike, Nokia, Mastushita, Philips, Epson, and Unilever.

During the training period, representatives from these member companies gave presentations on their respective brands, products, and the situation of Customs IPR protection, listened to introductions of investigation experiences for IPR cases made by Customs officials, visited with Customs officials the Jimunai port at the China-Kazakhstan border, as well as the freight transport yard, joint inspection site, border trade site, and exhibitions on Customs achievements in seizing infringing products. Members also exchanged ideas with Customs officials who participated in the training program and those who were on duty.

This training has helped further enhance mutual trust between the Customs sector and rights holders, deepen their communications, generate good suggestions, and improve the mechanism of communication, laying a solid foundation for future IPR protection.

With 10 branches, Urumqi Customs is in charge of regulating 18 open ports linking Xinjiang with eight neighboring countries. Since 2000, Urumqi Customs has been actively cooperating with the State Council, General Administration of Customs, and Xinjiang autonomous region government in joint efforts to crack down on fake and shoddy goods, by constantly strengthening its efforts on investigating and handling infringement cases at the import and export links, safeguarding lawful rights and interests of IPR holders.

From 2000 till now, 132 infringement cases have been investigated and dealt with, involving a goods value of RMB 5.9 million yuan.

In 2005, Urumqi Customs launched a Special Action of IPR Protection. In this action, 82 infringement cases involving a worth of more than RMB 2.1 million yuan were investigated and dealt with, representing 277% of the total number of cases handled in the five years up to 2004 – a new high; Urumqi Customs for the first time ranked among the Top 10 Customs in the country.

Informed sources have said that a pending WTO challenge against China’s intellectual property rights regime is expected to focus in part on whether Chinese rules that exempt piracy from criminal prosecution ignore a WTO rule that requires criminal procedures against all commercial-scale piracy.