By Monique Carroll and Ariel Ye King & Wood Mallesons’ Dispute Resolution Group

We recently wrote about how foreign investors can use investment treaties to protect investments made abroad from political risk[i]. ‘Political risk’ in foreign investment is the risk that an investment will be adversely effected by a host country’s political or regulatory decisions. We now look more closely at how Chinese investors can gain investment treaty protection.

Whilst developed Western countries have historically been the greatest proponents of investment treaties, China has now entered into more investment treaties than any other country besides Germany. One can assume that the Chinese government’s motivation for agreeing to so many treaties is to increase the protections provided to Chinese investors abroad. It also signals a willingness to provide the same protections to investments made in China. Continue Reading Guide to obtaining investment protection for Chinese investors

作者：丁宪杰 姚迪 唐磊 金杜律师事务所知识产权诉讼组 上海办公室

1、 作为外观设计专利获得《专利法》保护的相关案例和分析

根据《专利法实施细则》[i]第二条的规定，外观设计“是指对产品的形状、图案或者其结合以及色彩与形状、图案的结合所作出的富有美感并适于工业应用的新设计。”《专利法》第二十三条规定：“授予专利权的外观设计，应当不属于现有设计；也没有任何单位或者个人就同样的外观设计在申请日以前向国务院专利行政部门提出过申请，并记载在申请日以后公告的专利文件中。授予专利权的外观设计与现有设计或者现有设计特征的组合相比，应当具有明显区别。”综合以上规定，授予外观设计专利的要求是“新颖性”和“明显区别”，只要“实用艺术品”在申请日以前没有公开，获得外观设计专利授权应该没有太大难度。

就拿前述胶带切割机的案子来说，虽然其不能得到《著作权法》的保护，但从专利法对外观设计的要求看，其部件布局尚有一定的设计特点，若该产品有外观设计专利、原告以侵犯外观设计专利为由起诉对方的话，由于被告的产品外观与其基本一致，胜诉的可能性将非常大。 Continue Reading 我国司法实践中对“实用艺术品”的保护途径(二)

作者：丁宪杰  姚迪 唐蕾 金杜律师事务所知识产权诉讼组 上海办公室
一、我国法律对“实用艺术品”的规定

在中国，法律意义上的“实用艺术品”（works of applied art）一词来源于《保护文学艺术作品伯尔尼公约》（以下简称《伯尔尼公约》），该公约第二条、第七条明确规定了各成员国应给予“实用艺术作品”不低于25年的著作权保护[i]。在我国决定签署《伯尔尼公约》之后不久，国务院颁布了《实施国际著作权条约的规定》[ii]，其中第六条明确规定：“对外国实用艺术作品的保护期，为自该作品完成起二十五年。”除此之外，纵观我国《著作权法》[iii]及其实施条例，以及其他法律法规，均未提及“实用艺术品”一词。

二、司法实践中对“实用艺术品”的保护情况

虽然法律法规未对“实用艺术品”做出明确定义和规定，但在目前的司法实践中，各地法院都普遍承认“实用艺术品”能够作为“美术作品”得到《著作权法》保护，对“实用艺术品”作为著作权法意义上的“作品”的认定标准也比较统一。 Continue Reading 我国司法实践中对“实用艺术品”的保护途径(一)

By Richard W. Wigley King & Wood Mallesons’ Intellectual Property Group

In China today, companies which have invested resources in developing their marks encounter numerous problems in protecting and enforcing their trademark rights.  First and foremost, they face counterfeiters who without authorization use their marks on the same or similar goods. In addition, certain companies or individuals will become “trademark pirates” or “trademark squatters” and register marks of a famous brand in China.  While some trademark pirates do this to “free ride” on the brand equity of the brand owner, some trademark squatters may do it in an attempt to “negotiate” payment from the brand owner in exchange for the mark.  However, if the holder of a mark in a foreign market contracts with an original equipment manufacturer (“OEM”) in China for the manufacture of goods bearing said mark solely for export where the rights to said mark in the P.R.C. are held by another entity, are such actions (i.e. the manufacture solely for export of said goods) an infringement upon the P.R.C. trademark holder’s rights? Continue Reading China’s OEM’s Manufacturing Solely for Export receive Supreme People’s Court’s Guidance on what Constitutes Trademark “Use”

By Mia Qu King & Wood Mallesons’ IP Litigation Group  Shanghai Office.

As a result of the development of the biomedical industry and the Contract Research Organization (CRO) and Contract Manufacturing Organization (CMO) business models, China has become one of the most important outsourcing destination countries, acquiring considerable market share of the global outsourcing market. This paper aims to provide an overview of the intellectual property issues as related to biomedical outsourcing in the Chinese context.

I. Types of outsourcing and their respective legal relationships

In practice, there are many different types of possible relationships between pharmaceutical enterprises and CROs, for example: the revenue and risk sharing model, technology sharing model, cooperative management and development model, general research & development (R&D) model and technology service model. Continue Reading Intellectual Property Issues of Biomedical Outsourcing in the PRC

作者：瞿淼 金杜律师事务所知识产权诉讼组 上海办公室

随着生物医药行业以及CRO (Contract Research Organization，生物医药研发外包)和CMO（Contract Manufacturing Organization，合同制造厂）合作模式的发展，中国作为外包的重要目的地国家之一，已经在全球获得了可观的市场份额。本文将对中国法律制度框架下生物医药外包中的相关知识产权问题进行一个综合的介绍。

外包的类型及相应的法律关系

在实践中药企与CRO的合作可以有多种多样的形式，例如风险共担、收益共享模式、技术资源共享模式、研发管理型合作模式、一般合同研发服务模式等等。但无论商业上采取哪种模式以及双方达成何种商业条款，一般在法律上都能够被界定为某一种或几种特定的法律关系。 Continue Reading 中国生物医药外包中的知识产权问题

By Susan Ning, Kate Peng and Yunlong Zhang

The Price Bureau of Guangdong Province (“GDPB“) recently published an article about an investigation in a price-fixing cartel among sea sand dredging companies on its official website 1.  According to the article, the price of sea sand in Guangdong province rose from around RMB20 per cubic meter to over RMB40 per cubic meter since 2009, which seriously affected the progress of many major infrastructure projects of the State.  This unusual trend attracted the attention of the government of Guangdong province.  In order to find out the reason behind the price increase, GDPB initiated an investigation in February 2012 under the guidance of the Price Supervision and Anti-monopoly Bureau of the National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC“). Continue Reading Price Bureau Uncovered and Punished a Price-Fixing Cartel under the Leniency Program

作者：张保生 金杜律师事务所争议解决组

正所谓“知己知彼，百战不殆”，作为境内投资者，如果希望从容应对与跨国公司的公司纠纷或诉讼，首先要了解跨国公司处理在华公司诉讼的特点。

一、跨国公司在主动提起公司诉讼时一般非常慎重

（一）跨国公司主动提起公司诉讼时，一般经过认真的分析、论证

跨国公司是由分布在各国的诸实体所组成，其内部各实体之间，特别是母公司和子公司之间存在着密切的联系，当诉讼发生时，往往会产生“牵一发而动全身”的效果。因此，跨国公司不但经营管理具有全球性和集中性，不仅是从某个分公司、某个地区着眼，而是从整个公司的利益出发，从全球范围考虑公司的政策和策略，在纠纷解决时，也会十分谨慎和慎重，会从跨国公司的全球战略考虑纠纷的处理思路。 Continue Reading 跨国公司应对在华公司诉讼的特点——跨国公司在华诉讼系列(Ⅸ)

By King & Wood Mallesons

King & Wood Mallesons has updated its guide to doing business in Australia.

Australia welcomes and encourages foreign investment and has a favourable investment environment.  Investments that create exports, replace imports, introduce new technology or create employment are

particularly welcome.

Australia offers significant benefits for foreign investors, including:

  • a resilient and diverse economy with low inflation;
  • a transparent and liberal process for approval of foreign investment;
  • low barriers to trade and investment, with business-oriented corporate regulation;
  • a competitive company tax rate; and Continue Reading A guide to doing business in Australia

by Ariel Ye  King & Wood Mallesons‘ Dispute Resolution Group

Introduction

On 31 August 2012 a revision of the PRC Civil Procedure Law (the “CPL”) was adopted and is scheduled to take effect on 1 January 2013. This is the third revision of the CPL to be adopted and affects 85 articles, which cover a wide range of matters including case filing, evidence and enforcement procedure. Several new procedures have also been added which cover public interest litigation, small claims litigation, mediation agreements and other topics.

Background and Policy Objectives

The National People’s Congress Committee on Law commenced revision of the CPL in 2010. Continue Reading Insight into China’s Revision on Civil Procedure Law