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In the United States, Litigation funding describes the provision of capital to a claimant in exchange for a portion of the proceeds from a legal claim—whether by settlement or award—where recourse is limited to the proceeds of the claim at issue.  Legal claims, as an asset or liability, are like a bond or other financial instrument; once a legal claim “matures” through a judicial award or settlement, it entitles the claim creditor to payment on the prescribed terms.  However, unlike a bond it is uncertain as to whether the asset will indeed mature.  A bond entitles the holder to payment on its face.  A legal claim must survive the legal system’s crucible to hold any value.  Thus, an investment in a single legal claim bears substantial risk.  Litigation funding redistributes this risk to the party that is most willing and able to bear and manage it.  The social benefit of this risk distribution is the allocation of capital resources to their highest and best use; allowing companies to invest in projects that optimize returns and promote general economic growth.
Continue Reading Litigation Funding in the USA

On 20 July 2020, the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) of Singapore published the report of the Companies Act Working Group (CAWG) (Report), wherein the CAWG proposed certain amendments to Singapore’s existing Companies Act (Cap. 50) (CA) following a review of several areas of the CA (Proposed Amendments).
Continue Reading Proposed Changes to the Singapore Companies Act – How Does it Affect You as A Chinese Investor?

The field of biotechnology is growing rapidly and the number of patent applications is skyrocketing. CAR-T, gene editing, and coronavirus vaccines have become hotspots due to their extremely high clinical value or due to epidemic outbreaks. Because of complex ethical issues, the rapid development and the unpredictability of biotechnology, there is particularity existing in the field of biotechnology, which means the policy and criteria of examinations are frequently changing. It would be very helpful for the applicant (or the patentee) to understand the dynamic changes in the examination criteria in the field timely and accurately, so that they can obtain and maintain their patent rights and protect their legitimate rights and interests successfully. This article analyzes the dynamic changes of examination in this field from three angles – sufficiency of disclosure, supportiveness of claims and inventive step, and further provides some strategies and suggestions based on these analyses.
Continue Reading Strategies and Suggestions for Patent Applications in the Hot Field of Biotechnology

Unlike common law system that belongs to case law, China’s legal system is continental law system, subject to the “statute law”.  In the patent granting procedure, only the Patent Law, the Implementing Regulations of the Patent Law and the Guidelines for Patent Examination shall have legal effect in principle.  However, judging from our practical experience, the understanding of the same provision may vary depending on different examiners.  Examiners are inclined to follow the previous examination practice in dealing with issues that are significantly influenced by subjective judgment.  In view of this, proper application of precedents (including reexamination decisions, invalidation decisions and court judgments, etc.) can achieve twice the result with half the effort.
Continue Reading The Role of Precedents in Patent Granting Procedure

The goods partially refused in the trademark examination could be used to deduce that the disputed trademark owner intended to make confusion with the cited trademarks, which facilitates determining goods designated by the disputed trademark in different class/subclass similar to those designated by the cited marks as prior rights.
Continue Reading New Approach for Similarity Judgment of Cross-class Goods

On July 27, 2020, the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China (“SPC”) issued the SPC Guidelines Concerning Alignment of Application of Law and Strengthening Search of Similar Cases (Trial) (the “Guidelines”), which will come into effect on July 31, 2020. Strengthening search of similar cases is one of the improving measures in the Outlines for the Fifth Five-Year Reform of the People’s Court (2019-2023), and the similar case search has been tested in several people’s courts in different levels for years. This is an encouraging progress in PRC court’s efforts in resolving the issue of “different results on the same issue”, and it is expected to see more transparency and predictability in litigating IP cases before PRC courts.
Continue Reading SPC Issues the Guidelines on Search of Similar Cases, Increasing Importance of Precedents in Adjudication

Long before Beyond Meat was found in 2009 and Impossible was launched in 2015, China already had Gong Delin (功德林) a brand born in 1922 and producing noodles with mock meats. Aimed at Buddhists, or the curious, Gong Delin and others of its ilk have been passing off tofu as meat for almost 100 years. The writer recalls visiting in early 1990s and being harangued whether one could tell the difference between mock duck and real duck. Spoiler alert – a valiant effort but no duck.
Continue Reading Hot Pot: China as a Market for Meat Alternatives