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By Meng Xianghai, King & Wood’s IP Department

Recently, an increasing number of opinions from the State Intellectual Property Office ("SIPO") indicate that applications for patent protection for some inventions do not fall under the scope provided in Paragraph 2 of Article 2 of the PRC Patent Law, which defines an "’invention’ as any new technical solution relating to a product, a process, or improvement thereof." Thus, to understand what inventions can be patented, numerous terms such as “technical solution” must be properly defined.Continue Reading Inventions Defined under PRC Patent Law

By Shi Yusheng and Xia Fan, King & Wood’s IP Litigation Department

The newly promulgated Tort Law of the People’s Republic of China came into force on July 1, 2010. The Tort Law, positions itself as a fundamental doctrine in the protection of one’s civil and property rights in China. Intellectual property rights, such as copyrights, patent rights, trademark rights, are included in the scope of protection under the Tort Law. Accordingly, relevant provisions of the Tort Law will have substantial impact on  IPR infringement. While there are many intersects, one major impact is discussed below.Continue Reading Impact of PRC Tort Law on IPR Infringement

By Mark Schaub, Partner, Corporate, King & Wood Shanghai

Most companies engaging in a China project will likely need support from external consultants. This final section highlights the remaining members of the China deal team, including translators, accountants, and outside counsel.

Continue Reading China M&A: Assembling an Effective Team for a China Transaction Part III

By Mark Schaub, Partner, Corporate, King & Wood Shanghai

Most companies engaging in a China project will likely need support from external consultants. However, selecting the external team is often more difficult than assembling the internal team — who do you need? How do you find good ones? And what role should they play? This portion highlights the infamous China consultant. What kind of role do they play and do you actually need them?Continue Reading China M&A: Assembling an Effective Team for a China Transaction Part II

By Kenneth Choy, Partner, King & Wood – Hong Kong

The United States Supreme Court finally issued its decision on Bilski v. Kappos just before it shut down for the summer. As widely expected, the justices unanimously agreed that the Bilski claims are abstract ideas which are nonpatentable and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit properly rejected the claims. However, the court’s decision, authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy, left many dissatisfied as it declined to clarify limitations on the patentability of business method claims. The high court simply rejected the Federal Circuit’s view that the machine-or-transformation test was the exclusive test for patentable process claims and instead, looked back to the last century, to its cases of Gottschalk v. Benson, (1972), Parker v. Flook, (1978) and Diamond v. Diehr, (1981) to find the “guideposts” and §100(b) the Patent Act for the definition of “process”.Continue Reading Bringing the U.S. patent regime closer to China’s? Bilski v. Kappos

By Mark Schaub, Partner, Corporate, King & Wood Shanghai

Many West European and US companies have thinned out their ranks of middle management in the never-ending pursuit of shareholder value. A China project is likely to be more time intensive and involved (and therefore expensive) than the foreign company initially forecasts. For this reason many foreign investors in China face difficulties in assembling a successful business project team to implement the project. Part I discusses the assembling of an effective in-house team.Continue Reading China M&A: Assembling an Effective Team for a China Transaction Part I

By Susan Ning, Ronald Arculli, Peter Waters, and Angie Ng of King & Wood and Gilbert + Tobin (1)

Hong Kong’s Competition Bill (the Bill) was gazetted on 2 July 2010.(2) Formal public consultations on a cross-sector competition law for Hong Kong commenced in 2006. The Bill will be tabled in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (LegCo) on 14 July 2010. When the Bill becomes law, it will be known as the Competition Ordinance (CO).Continue Reading Hong Kong’s Competition Law – Unveiled!

By Mark Schaub, Partner, Corporate, King & Wood Shanghai

On May 19, 2010, the People’s Bank of China (“PBOC”) issued a new set of regulations for online payment service providers that will take effect on September 1, 2010. The new regulations bring payment services within the banking regulatory scheme.

Continue Reading China Retailers Beware…New Payment Restrictions may Impact your Revenue Channels!

By Kenneth Choy, Partner, King & Wood – Hong Kong

At times, an international company may find that their application for registration of a trademark is rejected by the Chinese Trademark Office. When this happens and all administrative appeals are exhausted, are there alternative means of brand protection available in China?Continue Reading Copyright Protection for your Brand when Trademark Protection is Unavailable