intellectual property

china.globaltimes.cn — An oil painting depicting the image of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has aroused accusations of infringement from a photographer.

www.theregister.co.uk — "Microsoft has been ordered to stop selling Windows XP in China after a court ruled that certain fonts in the operating system infringe on a Chinese firm's intellectual property." In other news, somebody in China actually recognizes the concept of intellectual property rights. Microsoft as the offender, +2 Irony.

www.chinatravel.net — Or is it just an imitator of that media giant, albeit a rather charmingly clumsy one? We're not sure what to think. Why would a major Chinese media outlet with a vast budget resort to naked borrowing-without-asking? It becomes even more curious when one realizes that said organization appears to possess a large staff of trained English-language content providers.

www.chinalawandbusiness.com — Wang Qishan, Vice Premier of the State Council, wrote an editorial for the WSJ entitled, “No More Chinese Knock-Offs”. It followed pretty closely after the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) released its 5 year IPR protection plan. This is really big talk. Is it actually going to happen?

www.allroadsleadtochina.com — For the most part, the news in China about IPR protection is bad news. There are copies of DVDs everywhere, LV bags are sold in bulk, and fake pharmaceuticals are a real concern for the government.

But the news isn’t all bad. In fact, while conducting a 20 city survey on manufacturing we decided to add a simple question:

Are there any specific cases where IPR suits have been filed, and what was the outcome?