On March 25, 2015, Beijing East IP Ltd. and DLA Piper LLP (US) successfully co-hosted a half day seminar covering cost and time saving techniques and best practices for securing patent rights in China, U.S, Australia, Korea, and Japan. A distinguished a panel of global practitioner from Beijing East IP, DLA Piper LLP (US), Cullens Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys, Central Intellectual Property & Law, and RyukaIP Law Firm presented two sessions of fascinating patent prosecution and protection strategies from a global perspective.

On March 20, 2015, Beijing East IP and the John Marshall Law School (the JMLS) advanced the already well-established partnership to a new level by signing a grant proposal. According to the proposal, Beijing East IP will donate to the Chinese Intellectual Property Resource Center of the JMSL, to promote understanding between IP communities of China and US, by jointly carrying out IP related programs, scholarship, and events.

According to the agreement, Beijing East IP and the JMLS will cooperate to 1) continue intellectual property immersion internship program at Beijing East IP for the students at the JMLS to have a better understanding of the Chinese legal and IP systems; 2) set up intellectual property educational exploration program at the JMLS for the legal professionals at Beijing East IP to study and comprehend the US legal and IP systems; 3) organise JMLS and Beijing East IP jointly supported US-China IP events, including Chinese IP mock trial to be organised in US, US and China IP Dialogue to be periodically held in either US or China, and inter nation lecture on specific IP topics to both US and China IP communities; and 4) establish scholarship for Chinese students with outstanding achievements while studying at the JMLS for law degree.

It is a firm belief of both Beijing East IP and the JMSL that, over time, this partnership will enhance bi-lateral cooperation on intellectual property issues while also providing ways to support international business and trade relations, which in turn helps create a solid foundation that benefits the economy of entire Asia-Pacific region and the world.

Dean John E. Corkery of the JMLS and Chairman Lulin Gao of Beijing East IP signed the grant proposal. Distinguished guests from the JMLS, including Mr. Leonard Amari, President of Board Trustee, Professor Dorothy Li, and Professor Arthur Yuan, Director at Chinese IP Resource Center; as well as colleagues from Beijing East IP including VP Dragon Wang and Partner Jason Wang, witnessed the signing ceremony.

Our vice general manager Mr. Dragon Wang was invited to speak at the Innovation China 2015 held in Shanghai on January 18th, 2015. The Innovation China Forum is a platform to bridge the innovation and investment worlds. The major emphasis is to foster a healthy and dynamic innovation ecosystem for new industries. Together with Mr. Sheng Yan, country head of Intellectual Ventures, Mr. Ben Wang, head of patents from Unilever China, and Mr. Louie Liu, former partner of Arch Venture, Mr. Dragon Wang acted as panelist on the Panel: IP Transfer and IP Commercialisation, which was moderated by Mr. Patrick Loofbourrow, partner at Cooley LLC.

As China becomes an innovation powerhouse in the world, and as more technology partnerships are formed between start-ups and MNCs, intellectual property protection becomes even more important. The above panelists shared their perspectives on commercialising and monetising IP with practitioners in the innovation and investment worlds from the east and the west.

Seagate Technology Public Limited Company (hereinafter referred to as “Seagate”), one of the world’s largest hard drive manufacturers, recentlyinvolved in a dispute over trademark infringement in China. The Plaintiff (Du, an individual from Guangdong province) filed a trademark infringement lawsuit before the Futian District People’s Court of Shenzhen City inGuangdong province claiming that the “FreeAgent” series hard drive products manufactured and sold by Seagate, its subsidiary, and its agent infringed upon his registered trademark “FREEAGENT.” Recently, the First Instance Court dismissed all the Plaintiff’s claims.

Mr. Donghui WANG is an experienced attorney at intellectual property law, especially those related with copyright, including China’s first computer gaming copyright litigation, the Shengda copyright case.

On January 11, 2015, a team of Beijing East IP Ltd./Beijing East IP Law Firm (Beijing East IP)went to the Beijing Tongzhou Intermediate Care Center to donate 15 desktop PCs and 10 monitors, pictured above from left to right including Vice General Manager Jian LI, Vince General Manager Dragon WANG, Shangqian XIAO, Lei WANG, Meiling LUO, Bowen MA.

In a recent trademark infringement lawsuit against an internationally reputed and renowned hard drive manufacturer (Hard Drive Manufacturer), Futian District People’s Court of Shenzhen City (the Court) affirmed that the products of the Hard Drive Manufacturer do not infringe upon the Plaintiff’s trademark registration, thus the Court dismissed all the Plaintiff’s claims including claimed damages of RMB 1.5 million (around US$ 250,000).

On October 2, 2014, the 2014 U.S. and China IP Dialogue Seminar was co-hosted by the Gao Lulin Foundation and the Silicon Valley Intellectual Property Law Association (SVIPLA), co-sponsored by Beijing East IP Ltd./Beijing East IP Law Firm (Beijing East IP) and Tsinghua University School of Law in Silicon Valley, home to many of the world’s largest technology corporations in the U.S.This Seminar created a senior platform to promote the U.S. and China IP academics and industrial exchange and cooperation. Through this Seminar, U.S. and China IP scholars, professionals, and attorneys engaged in in-depth discussions of the latest developments and enforcement of U.S. and China IP law.

On December 22, 2014, Mr. Anman QIU, former Deputy Director General of the National Copyright Administration of China joined Beijing East IP Ltd./Beijing East IP Law Firm (Beijing East IP) as a senior advisor.

On October 15, 2014, Rule 14 of the Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) on Several Issues concerning the Trial of Administrative Cases Involving the Granting and Determination of Trademark Right (Draft for Comment) was released with two different opinions regarding the weight of evidence of trademark registration certificate and trademark gazette in determining copyright ownership.