China Law Insight : China Law Insight: China Commercial and Intellectual Property Lawyers and Attorneys, Full Service Law Firm: King & Wood

By Richard  Wigley of King & Wood's Intellectual Property Group

Hollywood and Hong Kong film studios have long struggled to monetize their content in China. Though revenues from traditional movie theaters are growing rapidly, the real action may be found in the online market, where Chinese youth prefer to obtain their entertainment (i.e. film and television programming). How then can a content owner best take advantage of this rapid movement to online viewing in today's China?

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By Susan Ning and Ding Liang

Since the enactment of the Anti-Monopoly Law (AML), the antitrust enforcement authorities in China (i.e. the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)) and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC)) have issued procedural rules, detailing how they will go about an investigation and adjudication of an alleged breach of the Anti-Monopoly Law (AML).

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By Susan Ning and Liu Jia

As the Spring Festival approaches, the National Development and Reform Commission ("NDRC") has ordered local price authorities to step up enforcement efforts against price fraud conducts by retail stores, upon widespread consumer complaints.  On 26 January 2011, NDRC issued an announcement titled "Retail stores such as Carrefour are suspected of price fraud, local price authorities will hand out grave penalities" , condemning price fraud conducts by retail stores, based on investigations by local price authorities.

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By Ariel Ye, James Rowland and Richard  Wigley  of King & Wood 's Dispute Resolution Group and Intectual Property Group

Introduction

By asserting rights which Motorola and Nokia Siemens Networks undoubtedly consider legitimate, and relevant to the protection of their interests in the wireless infrastructure market, Huawei has taken a meaningful step towards the successful resolution of its differences with Motorola over the sale of its wireless network assets to one of Huawei's competitors. If Huawei had not taken this step before the US Federal District Court, then Huawei and Motorola may have spent years in private commercial arbitration of this issue, achieving no meaningful outcome.

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作者：叶渌、罗必成及韦理察    金杜争议解决组和知识产权组

简介

虽然在摩托罗拉和诺基亚西门子网络有限公司（下称“NSN”）看来，华为所主张的权利应是他们的合法权利，并且事关两者对基础无线网络领域利益的保护，但是华为采取的这种方式，是解决其与摩托罗拉之间关于向NSN（华为的竞争对手）转让无线网络资产的分歧的有效步骤。倘若华为不向美国联邦地区法院提起申请的话，华为和摩托罗拉可能要为此在保密的商业仲裁程序上耗费几年时间，并且毫无结果。

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By King & Wood's Trademark Practice

Foreign companies often have concerns regarding whether the litigation process in an overseas venue will be efficiently handled by the relevant courts. In China, given the large increase in IP-related lawsuits in recent years, this is a reasonable concern. In 2009, P.R.C. courts had concluded 6,262 cases with a yearly increase of 31.89%. ¹With such an upsurge in litigation, the P.R.C. courts have faced a very significant challenge.

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By King & Wood's Trademark Practice

Since 2005, several kinds of fake drinks trademarked "RED BULL" have appeared in the market across China. After 5 years of tough fighting, the real "RED BULL" now is very close to the victory in a vital battle.

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By Susan Ning and Shan Lining

In January 2011, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC) released the Rules on Anti-Price Monopoly (the NDRC Anti-price Monopoly Rules) (see our article entitled "Rules on Anti-Price Monopoly – effective 1 February 2011") and the Rules in relation to Conduct amounting to Monopoly Agreements (the SAIC Monopoly Agreement Rules) (see our article entitled "3 rules which shed light on non-price violations of the Anti-Monopoly Law – effective 1 February 2011") respectively on the 4th and 7th day of the month.
 

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By Richard  Wigley of King & Wood's Intellectual Property Group

Online infringement of copyright works in the P.R.C. has been a major problem for rights holders since the advent of the Internet. High rates of infringement have presented real challenges to content owners hoping to monetize their content in China's fast-growing online world. While civil, administrative and criminal actions are all available as possible means of seeking recourse and establishing deterrents, in practice, they all have distinct advantages and disadvantages. In the case of bringing criminal action against alleged copyright infringers, establishing that the alleged infringers qualify for criminal prosecution has at times proven problematic. Some additional assistance to rights owners, however, is now available.

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By Ariel Ye and James Rowland

On 29 December 2010 the Information Office of the State Council (China's cabinet) published a report detailing China's past and present anti-corruption efforts (the "White Paper").¹ This has been followed in quick succession by the publication of a report including the key facts and figures relating to China's anti-corruption efforts in 2010 and a public statement by President Hu Jintao in his address to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection that the Chinese government will wage a more forceful fight against corruption in future and that "More efforts should be made to investigate graft in key industries and key posts".²

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作者：叶渌、罗必成 金杜争议解决组

2010年12月29日，国务院新闻办公室发布了一份详细介绍中国过去及目前反腐败建设的报告（以下称“白皮书”）¹。 中国政府之前发布了关于2010年反腐败建设主要事实和数据的报告。此外，国家主席胡锦涛在中央纪律检查委员会全体会议上的公开讲话中表示，中国政府将会采取更强有力的措施遏制腐败，并且“应该加大对重要行业中贪污和重要职位贪污的调查”² 。在此基础上，中国政府发布了白皮书。

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By King & Wood'sTrademark Practice

No.	Trademark	Owner	Class	Goods / Service
1		Sony Kabushiki Kaisha (Also Trading As Sony Corporation)	9	Cinematographic apparatus; sound and image recording, transmitting and reproducing apparatus; data processing apparatus; computer
2		Martell & Co	33	Alcoholic drink
3		Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft	12	Automobiles, motorcycles and parts thereof
4	(Remy Martin in Chinese)	E.Remy Martin & Co.	33	Alcoholic drink (except beer)
5		Sheraton International, Inc.	43	Hotel
6		Yahoo! Inc.	42	Providing internet search engine
7		Apple Inc.	9	Computer; portable computer
8		TOTAL SA	4	Industrial oil and grease; lubricant oil
9	(Honda in Chinese)	Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha	12	Sedan; motorcycle; electrical vehicles
10		Toyota Motor Corporation	12	Automobiles
11	(Kewpie in Chinese)	Kewpie Kabushiki Kaisha.	30	Mayonnaise; salad dressings
12		Kabushiki Kaisha Kenwood (Also Trading As Kenwood Corporation )	9	Wireless audio and video devices, etc.
13		Toto Ltd.	11	Transparent sanitary ceramics; taps; water supply and sanitary parts and fittings, etc.
14		HOYA CORPORATION	9	Eyeglasses, eyeglasses lenses, etc.
15		MONDO SPA	28	Plastic track

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By King & Wood'sTrademark Practice

In September 15, 2010, WIPO released the World Intellectual Property Indicators for 2010. According to the report, the global financial crisis has affected the innovation activity in 2008 and 2009 and the growth data shows a slowdown. Yet China has shown strong growth in trademark filings. While total trademark applications worldwide fell by 0.9% in 2008, China saw 20.8% growth. The total number of trademark registrations worldwide grew by 7%, which China accounted for around 90% of the growth.

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By: Susan Ning, Shan Lining, Liu Jia and Angie Ng

On 7 January 2011, the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC) published the following 3 rules which accompany the Anti-Monopoly Law (AML):

(a) Rules in relation to Conduct amounting to Monopoly Agreements (Monopoly Agreement Rules);
(b) Rules in relation to Conduct amounting to Abuse of Dominance (Abuse of Dominance Rules); and
(c) Rules in relation to Conduct amounting to Abuse of Administrative Powers (Abuse of Administrative Powers Rules).
 

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By Susan Ning, Chai Zhifeng and Angie Ng

On 4 January 2011, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) fined the Zhejiang Fuyang Paper Making Industry Association (the Association) for facilitating its members in relation to engaging in monopoly acts, in breach of both the Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) and the Price Law (PL)¹.

This is the first enforcement action (in respect of price-related breaches of the Anti-Monopoly Law) by the NDRC in 2011.

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Mark Schaub , King & Wood's Corporate Group and Shanghai office

On March 1st 2011 New Regulations take effect on Registration of Resident Representative Offices of Foreign Enterprises (“Regulations”).

The Regulations clarify the Circular on Further Strengthening the Registration Administration of Foreign Enterprises' Resident Representative Offices issued by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) and the Ministry of Public Security on January 4, 2010, and will replace the Measures for the Administration of Registration of Resident Representative Offices of Foreign Enterprises that were promulgated by SAIC all the way back in March 15, 1983 (“Previous Regulations”).

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By: Mark Schaub and Luo Bin, King & Wood's Corporate Group and Shanghai Office

On December 14, 2010, the State Administration of Taxation (“SAT”) promulgated an Announcement on Issues Concerning the Verification of Taxation Basis of Individual Income Tax Payable on Equity Transfer Income (“Announcement”). The Announcement will come into effect on January 14, 2010.

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