Beijing

IP mediation center set up in capital's innovation hub

An intellectual property mediation center was established last week in Zhongguancun, a national innovation hub. The center is the latest effort by the local government of Haidian district to use social resources to resolve IP disputes and improve the IP environment. The center grew from a team of 300 volunteers, who are IP industry insiders, lawyers and scholars from more than 40 companies and organizations, who started mediating IP disputes in late April.

Beijing Business Today

Five jailed over World of Warcraft violations

Five people were imprisoned and fined for building private servers for World of Warcraft, the famous online game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. It was the first criminal case in China involving violations of the US company's copyrights. The five people started their illegal activities in October 2012 in Taizhou city, Zhejiang province, and made more than 2.3 million yuan ($359,315) by May 2013, when they were raided by police. They received jail sentences of between five and three and half years, with fines ranging from 100,000 yuan to 1 million yuan.

People's Court Daily

Zhejiang

Karaoke clubs mediate over music in spate of cases

More than 300 cases involving alleged music copyright violations in the city of Rui'an ended with mediations and judgments in a local court. The China Audio-Video Copyright Association filed more than 500 lawsuits against 27 karaoke operators in the city since January for using unlicensed music works. By Aug 11, 38 cases had ended with court rulings, and 325 ended with mediation, in which operators agreed to pay 1,400 yuan ($8,960) for each karaoke booth annually.

Wenzhou Metropolitan Daily

Chongqing

Online fake auto glass sellers caught out by police

Chongqing police cracked down on a group making and selling counterfeit automotive glass, involving total potential sales of more than 2 million yuan ($312,813). Police found 5,093 pieces of glass labeled with renowned trademarks, including BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, as well as seven molds to produce fake labels and more than 6,000 fake packages in eight locations. The group bought low-quality glass and sold the products online. They were believed to have made an illegal profit of over 400,000 yuan.

China National Radio

Guizhou

Four-day event celebrates dual cultural heritages

A four-day exchange program for intangible cultural heritage items in Anhui and Guizhou provinces started in Guiyang on Aug 14. The event included art performances and exhibitions. Audiences enjoyed flower-drum and folk dances from Anhui and Lantern Festival opera from Guizhou during the opening ceremony. There were also displays of paper-cutting from the two provinces, a craft that embodies the unique local cultures.

Guizhou Daily

Xinjiang

Patent application filings pass 10,000 benchmark

The IP authority in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region announced that regional companies and individuals filed 10,210 patent applications last year. The number has increased 284 times compared with 1985, when the Patent Law took effect. More than 5,200 patents were granted last year, growing more than 1,300 times from 1985. To encourage innovation, the Xinjiang government has launched a program to fund patent applications.

Xinjiang Daily

Jiangsu

Intellectual property course held for 130 engineers

A training program for IP engineers in Jiangsu province started in Nantong on Aug 15. The program included online self-study and face-to-face classes covering topics including patent examinations, reviews and validations, patent filings, analysis of the national standards and overseas IP protection. The program attracted about 130 trainees from local companies and IP agencies who will receive a certificate after they pass the final exam.

Nantong Intellectual Property Office

An advertisement for World of Warcraft at a book fair in Shanghai Jiang Wei / For China Daily

(China Daily 08/19/2015 page17)