26.04.2008
Posted in Patent Offices, China, Japan at 17:00 pm by TMSJ
Today is World IP Day - an initiative of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
The World IP Day was launched in 2001 and has every year a new motto. World IP Day 2008 focuses on celebrating innovation and promoting respect for intellectual property.
Certainly, World IP Day is celebrated throughout Asia. In China, lots of activities take place today, such as an Open Day for the public, inviting representatives from industries to visit the State Intellectual Property Office, an exposition on IP painting and calligraphy, press Conference on National IPR Week 2008, to name just a few.
In a press release, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) has announced to celebrate the World IP Day with a number of special events and programs. It includes among others the the launch of a new anti-piracy trailer in five countries – China, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore and Thailand.
So far, we could not see any annouced events in Japan - but as Japan presently hosts the Olympic Flag, we will celebrate the World IP Day by comtemplating the interesting problems surrounding the legal protection of Olympic symbols. 
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20.02.2008
Posted in Trademarks, China, Japan at 10:56 am by TMSJ
The Chinese Trademark Office (CTMO) has refused the application for the trademark registration of “Aomori” (written in kanji characters) for fruit and several other categories of products.
The prefecture of Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on the Japanese island of Honshu and is famous for its agricultural products, apples in particular.
After learning that a Chinese company filed an application for the trademark Aomori in 2002, the Aomori prefectural government — together with 23 industrial groups of the prefecture — filed a complaint against it. The prefectural government was afraid that a registration of the trademark Aomori would lead to a ban of agricultural products from Aomori which, not only in Japan, are highly respected and recognized.
The CTMO refused the registration arguing that names of places which are commonly known in China cannot be registered as a trademark.
Source: Yomiuri Shimbun
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28.11.2007
Posted in Courts and Cases, China, Japan at 8:23 am by TMSJ
Shortly after Ryohin Keikaku, another Japanese company has gained a court victory in China in IP matters:
Audio equipment maker Kenwood Corporation announced recently that it had won all cases against Chinese companies over infringement of its trademarks, copyrights and design patents.
Kenwood had brought forth infringement claims against three Chinese companies (Fujian Top Way Intelligent Science & Technology Co., Ltd., Fuqing Rongwei Communications Co., Ltd. and Beijing Yichangyuan High Technology Co., Ltd.) with the Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court.
Kewood started the lawsuits because of alleged trademark infringement and violation of the Act Against Unfair Competition, copyright infringement, and design patent infringement of wireless radio equipment. The Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court decided in favor of the Japanese company, so Kenwood won all three lawsuits in Beijing in the first instance. The defendants appealed the decisions to the Beijing People’s High Court.
In a fourth lawsuit, Kenwood sued Fujian Top Way over copyright violation with the aim to stop Fujian Top Way copying and distributing software over the internet for setting the frequency of Kenwood’s wireless radio equipment. The court ruled also in favor of Kenwood and again, Fujian Top Way also filed an appeal, in this case with the Fujian People’s High Court.
The judges of the appellate courts in Beijing and Fujian upheld the lower courts’ decisions: The Beijing High People’s Court and Fujian High People’s Court ordered the Chinese companies to pay a total amount of 4.3 million yuan (about 66.65 million JPY/(US $580,300) in damages to Kenwood for selling Kenwood look-alike transceivers labelled ”Kenwei”. They also ordered the three companies to pay damages, stop manufacturing and selling copies of Kenwood products, stop copying and distributing Kenwood software, and issue public apologies in magazines and on their websites.
Kenwood announced that they will continue to promote activities to stop infringements of their intellectual property rights.
Source
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22.11.2007
Posted in Trademarks, Courts and Cases, China, Japan at 10:39 am by TMSJ
The trademark dispute between the Japanese company Ryohin Keikaku Co., Ltd. and Jet Best Investment Co., Ltd., Hong Kong (JBI) has now finally been decided by the Beijing People`s High Court in the last instance. All in all, the legal proceedings had been going on for more than seven years.
Muji is the abbrevation for mujirushi ryôhin, which can be translated as “unlabeled superior article”. It is the brand name used by Ryohin Keikaku in overseas markets.
The trademark “MUJI” was first used by Ryohin Keikaku Co., Ltd. in 1980. In 1984, Ryohin Keikaku registered the “MUJI” for clothes in Japan. Meanwhile, in 1991 the company registered “MUJI” and “Mujirushi Ryohin” in Hong Kong and later in several other countries such as the U.K. and France.
In 1999 Ryohin Keikaku decided to apply for the registration of the trademarks “MUJI” and “Mujirushi Ryohin” in mainland China and had to find out that these trademarks had already been registered in the name of JBI since 1995. Ryohin Keikaku filed for the cancellation of the trademarks in question with the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB), which ruled in favor of cancellation of both trademarks of JBI in November 2005. The TRAB stated that Ryohin Keikaku had used the trademarks prior to the registrations of JBI and that JBI had even advertised products with the trademarks in question as “Japanese brands”.
However, the decision of the TRAB could not become effective, since JBI appealed the decision with the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, again without much success, as the Court dismissed the claim.
Finally, JBI brought the case before the Beijing People`s High Court and lost again. The judges of the Beijing People`s High Court decided the trademarks of JBI have to be cancelled. Finally, a long time lawsuit came to an end.
Source: Press release of Ryohin Keikaku
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14.11.2007
Posted in Trademarks, Courts and Cases, China at 22:00 pm by TMSJ
There has been a surprinsing development in the lawsuit filed by Wahaha Food Co. (a joint venture formed by the French dairy maker Danone and the Chinese Hangzhou Wahaha Group) against the Chinese Trade Mark Office (CTMO):
A spokesman of Ogilvy & Mather, a public relations company representing Groupe Danone SA in China, told Shanghai Daily last week that the joint venture group has withdrawn the lawsuit against the CTMO. “During the legal process, we believe the facts around the written reply from the state trademark office have been clarified”.
Earlier on, it had been reported by Chinese media that Danone had had no choice than to drop the case against the CTMO as they seemed to have missed a filing deadline.
The MIP reports, however — under references close to the litigation — that the case was dropped because the Joint Venture Group had already obtained its main objective, namely a formal confirmation by the CTMO that Wahaha had not even attempted to transfer the trademarks in question to the Danone Joint Venture Group — which would be a serious breach of the joint venture agreement.
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