China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate Issues 26th Batch of Guiding Cases for Intellectual Property

Posted on Categories Case, Copyright, Trade Secrets, Trademarks

On February 8, 2021, China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate issued the 26th batch of guiding cases covering intellectual property.  This batch covers 5 cases including criminal trademark, copyright and trade secret law.  Foreign victims included Starbucks, Cisco, and HP in 2 of the 5 cases. A brief summary of the cases follow.  The full text is available here (in Chinese only).

Biden was Inaugurated on January 20, 2021, His Name is Already Trademarked in China

Posted on Categories Trademarks

The inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States took place on January 20, 2021. However, Chinese  companies have been applying for his name as a trademark as far back as 2004. Trademark applications increased significantly as the election race heated up in 2020 with 18 trademarks applied for in 2020 for Biden in English.  The Chinese transliteration of Biden – 拜登 – was also popular with a 108 trademark applications in total (with 20 of …

Shell Awarded 5.5 Million RMB in Chinese Trademark Infringement Case

Posted on Categories Case, Trademarks

On January 21, 2021, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court announced the awarding of 5.5 Million RMB (~$851 thousand USD) in damages and expenses to Shell International and Shell China for trademark infringement regarding automobile lubricants. The Court also awarded an injunction against the 5 defendants:  corporations North Shell Company (北壳公司), Jianchi Company (剑驰公司) , Annaichi Company (安耐驰公司), and persons Wang and Song.

U.S. Trade Representative Names 5 Chinese Online Markets in 2020 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy

Posted on Categories Copyright, Trademarks

The United States Trade Representative (USTR) released their annual Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy for 2020 on January 14, 2021 and included five mainland Chinese online markets in the online market section of the list.  Markets on the list are reported to engage in or facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy.  There is no penalty for being listed but the list has been used to encourage foreign companies and countries to crack down on piracy and counterfeiting.  …