LONGAN LAW FIRMContents
Long An News
Long An and its lawyer included in Greater China RegionGuide Rankings by Chambers and Partners
Long Anselected as a Gold Medal Model Firm for Trademark Agency Services
Long An included in the 2023 ALB China Regional Market Ranking: Circum-Bohai Sea Area Firms & Rising Lawyers
Long An Notable Cases
Long An assisted an internationally renowned sports brand in invalidating 11 design patents imitating the client’s trademark
Long An Assisted a Client in the Short Video Field in Winning Two Patent Invalidation Cases
China IP News
The CNIPA published the intellectual property data 2022
The CNIPA issued the Announcement on the Full Implementation of Electronic Patent Certificates
The SPC and SPP Seek Comments on Interpretation on Several Issues Relating to the Application of Law in the Handling of Criminal Cases of IP Infringement
Long An Comments
Discussion on the subject status of artificial intelligence under the Copyright Law
Long An News
Long An and its lawyer included in Greater China Region Guide Rankings by Chambers and Partners
On January 13, 2023, Chambers and Partners, an international authoritative legal rating agency, released the Greater China Region Guide 2023, and Long An and its lawyer won the following three awards:
Long An was included in Greater China Region Guide Rankings – Intellectual Property: Litigation (PRC Firms);
Long An was included in Greater China Region Guide Rankings – Corporate/Commercial: Beijing (PRC Firms);
Lawyer Xiuping Pan of Long An was included in Greater China Region Guide Rankings – Banking and Finance.
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/_xNi8c-Ckn4JedtCXJfvYg
Long An selected as a Gold Medal Model Firm for Trademark Agency Services
Recently, the China Trademark Association released the list of winners of the Gold Medal Model Firms for the Fourth Competition in Trademark Agency Services. Long An Law Firm won the distinguished award with its strong caliber and outstanding achievements.
This award received by Long An reflects its superior professional capability and excellent performance in the field of trademark agency. In the future, Long An will continue to work hard as ever to protect the interests of clients with high-quality services.
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/k5uBLmMcrBr6n4Ef5gscsQ
Long An included in the 2023 ALB China Regional Market Ranking: Circum-Bohai Sea Area Firms & Rising Lawyers
Recently, the Asia Legal Business (ALB)，a well-known legal media, released the first regional legal ranking in 2023. Long An Law Firm was included in the 2023 ALB China Regional Ranking: Circum-Bohai Sea Area Firms, and lawyer Na Cao of Long An was recognized as a Rising Lawyer.
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/lLbd7N__geB0obGVxz9Byg
Long An Notable Cases
Long An assisted an internationally renowned sports brand in invalidating 11 design patents imitating the client’s trademarkRecently, Long An lawyers, Ms. Cindy Quan, Mr. Jianjun Fu, Mr. Yuan Piao, Mr. Lei Wen and Ms. Alice Chengyan Zhao assisted an internationally renowned sports brand in successfully invalidating 11 design patents. In this case, according to the client’s claim, the Long An team filed a patent invalidation request for a series of design patents that were suspected of imitating the client’s famous trademark, on the grounds that they are not in compliance with Article 23, paragraph 3 of the Patent Law of the People’s Republic of China. Long An successfully made the collegiate panel adopt their claim with dozens of evidences, determine that the relevant logos in the designs involved are similar to the client’s prior registered trademark, which may easily confuse the relevant public and infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of the trademark owner. Finally, the CNIPA invalidated all 11 designs involved.https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/NwIoOwBIQTPpdse6UyrO_Q
Long An Assisted a Client in the Short Video Field in Winning Two Patent Invalidation Cases
Recently, Long An lawyers, Ms. Cindy Quan, Mr. Jianjun Fu and Mr. Xiaojun Zheng, won the two GUI design patent invalidation cases. The CNIPA upheld our claims and invalidated the two patents involved.
In this series of cases, according to the client’s claim, the Long An team filed a patent invalidation request on the ground that design patents involved are not significantly different from the existing design (Article 23, Paragraph 2 of the Patent Law). The focus of this case is that the patented design should be clearly different from the existing design or the combination of existing design features. In this regard, the Long An team provided a number of important instruments of evidence through targeted collection, fully demonstrating that the patents involved are not significantly different from the reference design and the conventional combination in this field. In the end, the CNIPA upheld our claims and made a decision to invalidate the two design patents involved.
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/7WK7x0qaVSh-gUEWmsoPKA
China IP News
The CNIPA published the intellectual property data 2022
On January 16, 2023, the Information Office of the State Council held a press conference to present the work related to intellectual property in 2022. In 2022, 798,000 invention patents, 2.804 million utility model patents, and 721,000 design patents were granted, and 74,000 PCT international patent applications, 63,000 patent reexamination cases and 7,900 invalidation cases were closed. Chinese applicants submitted 1,286 applications for international registration of designs through the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs.
In 2022, there were 6.177 million registered trademarks. The CNIPA completed the review of 169,000 trademark opposition cases, conducted trials of 412,000 trademark review cases, and received 5,827 applications for Madrid international registration of trademarks submitted by Chinese applicants.
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/SSznmI5AbPplmlr8E0oHsw
The CNIPA issued the Announcement on the Full Implementation of Electronic Patent Certificates
From February 7, 2023 (inclusive), the CNIPA will fully implement the electronic patent certificates. Any person who applies for and obtains the patent granting in electronic form can download the electronic patent certificate through the patent business handling system, and any person who applies for and obtains the patent granting in paper form may download the electronic patent certificate according to the method notified in the Notice of Obtaining the Electronic Patent Certificate.
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/89jclC0qgvTwEz-m0ihZmg
The SPC and SPP Seek Comments on Interpretation on Several Issues Relating to the Application of Law in the Handling of Criminal Cases of IP Infringement
The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) have jointly released the Interpretation on Several Issues Relating to the Application of Law in the Handling of Criminal Cases of the Intellectual Property Infringement (Draft for Comment) (the “Draft”) to solicit public opinions by March 5, 2023.
The Draft, consisting of 31 articles, stipulates that, in the event that anyone, without permission from the owner of a registered trademark, uses a trademark which is identical to the registered trademark on the same kind of commodity and the amount of illegal income is more than CNY30,000 or the amount of illegal business is more than CNY50,000, the case shall constitute “serious circumstance” as specified in Article 213 of the Criminal Law; in the event that anyone, without permission from the owner of a registered trademark, uses a trademark which is identical to the registered trademark on the same kind of service and the amount of illegal income is more than CNY100,000, the case shall constitute “serious circumstance” as specified in Article 213 of the Criminal Law.
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/vuAeQRNJvDSYZOtJYCR_iQ
Long An Comments
Discussion on the subject status of artificial intelligence under the Copyright Law
According to Article 11 of Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China, the natural person who creates the work is the author. Even the works of “legal person or unincorporated organization” stipulated in this article are only based on the leadership status of the legal person or unincorporated organization, from the perspective of reflecting the will of a legal person or an unincorporated organization, or being responsible by a legal person or an unincorporated organization, it is considered that a legal person or an unincorporated organization has the identity of the author. But in essence, the work should still be regarded as being created by a natural person.
Therefore, “artificial intelligence” cannot serve as the subject of the Copyright Law from the legal provisions. At present, Chinese judicial practice holds the same attitude on this matter.
In the case of infringement of the information network dissemination rights between Filin Law Firm and Beijing Baidu Network Technology Co., Ltd., the court believes that although the content of the analysis report automatically generated by China Law Reference involves the judicial analysis of the film and entertainment industry, meets the form requirements of the written works, and reflects certain originality in terms of the selection, judgment, and analysis of relevant data, according to the level of technology and industrial development, if the intelligence and economic investment of such software can be fully protected in the current legal protection system, it is not appropriate to expand the basic definition of the subject of civil law. Therefore, the court determined that the works under the copyright law should still be created and completed by a natural person.
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/oDctZXaR-F66OLIdzNfq_w
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