Thanks very much for the organizers and the host. I am very glad to share my opinions on the topic of “Some Issues on Copyright Protection of Fictional Characters”, that is, a rough framework idea of copyright protection and other aspects of protection of fictional characters. Firstly, I’d like to show you some statistic data. According to the International Licensing Industry Merchandiser’s Association (LIMA), the global retail sales of licensed commodities in 2018 is 280.3 billion US dollars. As can be seen, this is a huge industry, wherein 79% of the sales are through physical stores, and 21% through online stores. Although the proportion of online sells may not be as large as imagined, it will probably change with the development of the models and channels of online retail commodities. Our topic today relates to entertainment and characters, accounting for 43.8% of the 280.3 billion U.S. dollars, namely 122.7 billion U.S. dollars. Therefore, it is already a very large industrial chain to license fictional characters to derivative products for retail. At present, there are no accurate statistics on the Chinese market or statistics on licensing models other than retail commodities, which is believed to be a very large amount.

Beijing East IP Ltd. / Beijing East IP Law Firm received wide acclaim and high recognition from worldwide clients during the INTA 2019 Annual Meeting held at Boston, US. Among the positive feedbacks, it is of particular interest that Beijing East IP won the Best Local Counsel Award at Facebook Global Counsel Summit for the consistent high-quality service and outstanding performance.

The Third Council and Supervisory Committee of the 3rd Capital Intellectual Property Services Association reviewed and approved the “List of Trademark Professional Committee Members” on August 5, 2019, which announced the director, deputy director and members of the Trademark Professional Committee. YIN Liang from BEIJING EAST IP LTD was elected as a member of the Trademark Professional Committee.

McDonald’s “McFlurry in simplified Chinese” and “McFlurry in traditional Chinese” have been recognized as well-known trademarks by the Beijing IP Court – after the well-known recognition of “McDonald’s & Arches logo,” “McDonald’s in Chinese” and “McDelivery in Chinese” by the China Trademark office (CTMO) and the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB).

In May 24, 2019, the Beijing IP Court recognized Cisco’s “CISCO in Chinese” mark on network communication equipment as well-known in China and revoked the decision held by the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB).

At the beginning of March 2019, BEIJING EAST IP LTD received good news once again. In “2018 Patent Agency Rating Result Notification” issued by Beijing Patent Attorneys Association, BEIJING EAST IP LTD was reelected in the patent agency rating list. After continuous hard work of many years and by virtue of professional ability and careful service concept, BEIJING EAST IP LTD was awarded as AAAAA agency (BEIJING EAST IP LTD was awarded as AAA agency and AAAA agency respectively in the last two rating activities), which shows the overall ability of BEIJING EAST IP LTD in Intellectual Property service fields and reflects high recognition of governments and clients on our business level and service quality.

BEIJING EAST IP LTD and Tsinghua University have a long-term relationship. Dr. Lulin GAO, the founder of BEIJING EAST IP LTD, serves as a Visiting Professor and sets up scholarship in Tsinghua University School of Law. Dr. Lulin GAO has three children and all of them received higher education in Tsinghua University. After being founded in 2002, BEIJING EAST IP LTD recruited tens of employees who graduated from Tsinghua University, including Dr. Xiaodong LI, the General Manager of BEIJING EAST IP LTD.

Lin ZHAO and Chris LIU, lawyers from Beijing East IP Law Firm, represented producers and co-producers (referred to as “the film companies”) of the movie When Larry Met Mary recently, and won the first instance lawsuit filed by Shanghai Animation Film Studio (referred to as “Shanghai Animation”), and Shanghai Putuo District People’s Court rejected Shanghai Animation’s claims of copyright infringement and unfair competition.

Zhang Wei, as Chairman of Zhongguancun Intellectual Property Bureau, visited Beijing East IP LTD (referred to as “Beijing East IP” hereinafter) together with his colleagues to conduct work exchanges.

Dr. Lulin GAO, Chairman of Beijing East IP Ltd., met Mr. Aso, senior consultant of Fukuoka Institute of Technology on Sep 27, 2018.