Qingdao Intellectual Property Protection （2009）

In 2009, under brilliant leadership of Qingdao Municipal Committee and Municipal Government, according to the thought and requirement of “encouraging invention, applying efficiently, protecting legally, and administrating scientifically”, the intellectual property strategy was thoroughly implemented in Qingdao to forge ahead in a pioneering spirit and work energetically. Outstanding achievements were made in intellectual property work. Many noticeable points to improve IPRs policies and regulations, strengthen IPRs protection, optimize the enterprise independent innovation environment, and enhance IPRs cultural construction appeared, which promoted the construction for Qingdao to become an innovative city and became important power for our city to develop fast and healthily under the international financial crisis.

1. Implement Outline of Qingdao Intellectual Property Strategy in full, and create the policy environment of intellectual property

Mr. Xia Geng, mayor and deputy secretary of Qingdao Municipal Committee, wrote an inscription for intellectual property, “Implement intellectual property strategy, and build innovative Qingdao”. In the Second Mayor Intellectual Property Forum held by State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China, Ms Zhang Hui, member of standing committee of Qingdao Municipal Committee and deputy mayor, gave a speech of “Implementing intellectual property strategy, and improving urban core competitiveness”. Under active collaboration of municipal leaders, the Leading Group of Qingdao Intellectual Property enriched itself, and set the Leading Group Office in Qingdao Intellectual Property Bureau. Special funds for intellectual property (patents) were listed into financial budget separately.

In May, 2009, Outline of Qingdao Intellectual Property Strategy (hereinafter, “the Outline”) was promulgated by the municipal government, which became the first programmatic document to guide intellectual property in Qingdao. Based on the goal to build an innovative city and a moderately prosperous society in all respects, the Outline put forward the goal, emphasis, special tasks and strategic measures to implement urban intellectual property strategy, and practical and efficient measures were made to strengthen organization, leadership, supervision and assessment, intensify the enterprises’ leading role, improve financial support, encourage the output, management and utilization of intellectual property, intensify intellectual property protection, and promote cultural construction of intellectual property aw well as professional education and introduction. An overall plan to promote the development of intellectual property cause and improve city core competitiveness was also made. In order to carry forward the strategy efficiently, tasks were arranged according to the Outline, and detailed arrangement was made to implement the strategy.

Our city connected current situation of trademark work and economic development reality tightly, put forward implementation goal, work task, and strategic measures of trademark strategy, and made our trademark strategy. We promulgated Interim Provisions on Pledge Loans of Qingdao Trademark Exclusive Right, built the financing platform between the enterprises and financial institutions, and broadened the financing channel for enterprises. We also issued Suggestions on Further Regulating Well-known (Famous) Trademark Declaration and Determination, put forward to establish a scientific and normative cultivation system, clean and efficient declaration system, just and strict determination system, and open and transparent supervision system to guarantee that the recommendation and determination of well-known (famous) trademarks become cleaner, more normative and efficient.

2. Boost pilot, demonstration projects, and strive for demonstration city of various intellectual properties

In August, 2009, the Conference of Assessing National Intellectual Property Demonstration City was held in Qingdao. Ms Zhang Hui, member of standing committee of Qingdao Municipal Committee and deputy mayor, gave a special report to the expert group of State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China on behalf of the municipal government, and our demonstration city building was highly praised by this group. On October 13, Qingdao was assessed the demonstration city of national intellectual property by State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China, and our intellectual property entered the advanced rank in China. Laoshan District (high-tech industrial park) was regarded the demonstration building park of national intellectual property, Sifang District and Huangdao District were regarded the provincial demonstration districts of intellectual property, Jiaozhou became the pilot city of provincial intellectual property, and Jimo entered the powerful projects of national intellectual property. Hisense Group completed the pilot work of enterprises and public institutions, and was determined the demonstration unit of national intellectual property. 15 enterprises, including Qingdao Sanli Group, became the fourth intellectual property pilot units of national enterprises and public institutions.

Our city submitted the Report of Declaring National Trademark Strategy and Implementing Demonstration City, and strived actively for the trademark demonstration city. Qingdao Industrial and Commercial Administration Bureau was awarded Advanced Unit of Olympics Mark Protection by State Administration for Industry & Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, and the industrial and commercial administration bureaus of six cities and districts, including Licang, Chengyang, Jiaonan, Jiaozhou, Pinygdu and Jimo, were regarded the provincial advanced unit of trademark case handling.

In April, 2009, the process to establish the demonstration city of national copyright is launched officially, and Mr. Liu Binjie, president of General Administration of Process and Publication of the People’s Republic of China and chief of National Copyright Administration of the People’s Republic of China, attended the launching ceremony. Among over 50 cities to apply for the demonstration city building, Qingdao was one of the only two cities that were approved to launch by National Copyright Administration of the People’s Republic of China. Qingdao Copyright Bureau was regarded Advanced Unit of National Intellectual Property. Haier Group and Qingdao No. 6 Printing and Dyeing Co., Ltd. were regarded Innovative Enterprise of Copyright Protection and Provincial Demonstration Unit of Copyright Corporation respectively. Qingdao Xinhua Bookstore Group, Liqun Department Store, and Ego Digital Square were named Provincial Demonstration Units of Genuine Product Management. Three enterprises, including Bank of Qingdao, Guoxin Investment Group, were recommended by the provincial bureau to participate in the selection of national demonstration units of genuine product operations.

In January, 2009, Qingdao Culture Bureau was awarded Advanced Unit of Cultural Entertainment Web with the highest score among 17 cities in Shandong Province. We carried out excellence creation activities in cultural market. In October, we organized the selection contests of civilized management units in citywide cultural market and “E-web safety-demonstration internet bar”, and recognized 14 civilized management units in cultural market and E-web safety-demonstration internet bars.

3. Improve the creation and utilization capacities of intellectual property, and promote sustained and steady economic development

Our city further emphasized the leading role of enterprises, directed them to cope with international financial crisis, and increased their independent innovation capacities. The IPRs commissioner system was established in 32 enterprises and public institutions and the IPRs management level of the enterprises were improved. 8,754 patents were applied in our city, up 4.6% over the same period of the previous year, among which there were 2,197 patents for inventions, up 6.1% over the same period of the previous year. 4,432 patents were granted here, up 33.9% over the same period of the previous year, among which there were 552 patents for inventions, up 36.6% over the same period of the previous year. By the end of 2009, there were totally 58071 patents applied in Qingdao, among which there were 10730 patents for inventions. 29,951 patents were granted in total, among which there were 2268 patents for inventions. Among the accumulated applied and granted patents in our city, service invention proportions covered 63% and 65% respectively, and enterprise patents in service inventions covered 93%.

In 2009, the trademark registration amount was 6,836, which increased by 110.5% compared to 2008. There were 5,559 commodity trademarks, up 117.7%, and there were 1,277 service trademarks, up 84.3%. By the end of 2009, there were 26,980 trademarks which were registered effectively in Qingdao. In April, five trademarks, “Huadong”, “Qingzhuan”, “Journey with Love”, “Hujihua”, “Qindao”, were determined, which had the most determination amount in our city since China started to determine well-known trademarks collectively. The determination of “Journey with Love” broke zero record of well-known trademarks in the service industry. By the end of 2009, there were 22 administrative determination well-known trademarks in Qingdao, 249 provincial famous trademarks which were at top of Shandong Province.

Qingdao Intellectual Property Bureau directly carried out the acceptance, examination, certificate issuance, statistics, record, archives approved by the provincial bureau, which shortened the handling limit greatly. More than 600 works were registered in the whole year, and the amount doubled the previous year. During the book fair, the works free registration channel was set in the assembly copyright area where 394 works were freely registered for the copyright owners.

According to the new species protection list of four forestry plants issued by State Forestry Administration of the People’s Republic of China, there were totally 10 kinds of water lilies in our city to become superior forestry types in Shandong Province.

Our city regarded the enterprises as the key points of intellectual property implementation and patent technology transfer, and actively promoted the commercialization and industrialization of intellectual property. We strengthened the combination enterprise, universities and research institutes, promoted the proprietary intellectual property of scientific research institutions, universities and colleges to connect, license and cooperate with the enterprises, make more high and new technologies and patents locate in our enterprises and convert into productivity. According to incomplete statistics, the implementation rate of citywide intellectual property exceeded 70%, and that of enterprise intellectual property reached 91%.

With the Display and Transaction Center of National Patent Technology (Qingdao), we displayed the patent technology by material objects and on the internet, which provided a public benefit, and reliable patent display and transaction platform for our patent owners and investors. During the Third China (Qingdao) Patent Week, in the municipal government location and internet, “Blue Economy” Patent Technology Exhibition Trade Fair was held. 87 patent technological achievements from nearly ten scientific research institutions including Institute of Oceanology of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Ocean University of China were displayed, which engaged in many domains including sea farming, ocean power, seawater desalting, ship building, intensive processing of sea food, and marine biopharmaceuticals. The displayed patent projects were introduced in a featured page by Qingdao Daily.

We further improved the construction of information service platform of intellectual property. On the basis of adding the platform hardware inventory and server, the patent data of Korea, Russia, Southeast Asia, Arabia, Taiwan and Hong Kong were newly added in the patent literature database, the advanced and practical utilization system software of patent database was installed to provide highly efficient and continuous patent information service for the public. Our intellectual property information platform entered the city’s scientific and technical innovation platform which became an important service window of independent innovation. In order to speed up the further utilizations of patent information, according to the development of important industries, we organized enterprises (Haier, Hisense, CSR, etc.) to carry put special research of “the Construction of Patent Database and Patent Early Warning & Emergency Management System”.

4. Strength the protection of intellectual property, and create fine market operation order

We established the law-enforcement and collaboration system of intellectual property. Qingdao Intellectual Property Bureau cooperated with Qingdao Intermediate People’s Court, Qingdao Customs, Qingdao Public Security Bureau, Qingdao Industrial and Commercial Administration Bureau, Qingdao Copyright Bureau, Qingdao Agricultural Committee, Qingdao Forestry Bureau to sign Agreement on Strengthening Intellectual Property Protection and Collabration, and formed four collaborating systems, i.e., collaborating contact system, united law-enforcement, case transfer and cooperation system, and research communication system.

We actively promoted the construction of China (Qingdao) Intellectual Property Protection and Assistance Center from the aspects of institution building, system establishment and facilities allocation. In terms of the institution building, the mark of Intellectual Property Protection and Assistance Center was approved to hang at Qingdao Intellectual Property Affair Center by the municipal compilation department. And the center was changed from a public balance allocation unit into a public sum allocation unit. Meanwhile, three employment opportunities are added to employ telephone operators whose expenses were checked and allocated by the financial unit. In terms of system establishment, the regulations of Administrative Regulations on Qingdao Intellectual Property Protection and Assistance, and the Constitution of Qingdao Intellectual Property Protection and Assistance Center were proclaimed which guaranteed that right protection and assistance could be operated normatively and orderly. In terms of facilities allocation, an office was set in the municipal sci-tech management platform by the Intellectual Property Protection and Assistance Center. The intellectual property protection & assistance hotline 12330 was opened to collectively accept and hear reports and complaints regarding the infringement and illegal cases of intellectual property. By the end of 2009, nine reports and complaints on intellectual property protection were accepted which were totally delivered to relevant authorities to handle. 40 consultations were accepted and two cases of intellectual property protection were assisted.

The special law-enforcement campaigns, i.e.,“Thunderstorm”, “Skynet”, were carried out in the patent system in Qingdao, which took various goods wholesale markets and large malls as the main places, and cracked down patent illegal behaviors in home appliances, food, medicine, agriculture, etc. More than 400 law-enforcing officers were called, over 60,000 articles of various commodities were examined, over 500 kinds of patent label commodities were registered, and 34 cases counterfeiting patents were recorded and investigated. Over 100 patent disputes were consulted in the whole year, 12 patent infringement disputes were recorded and handled, all of which were settled. The compulsory execution was applied for the personnel concerning cases who did not perform administrative penalty on time. In 2009, three compulsory execution cases were settled and RMB 31,000 yuan were collected as administrative penalty charges. In the patent law enforcement, we emphasized to give full play to the simple and speedy advantages of administrative settlement, and mediated patent infringement disputes scientifically, properly and efficiently. As for a patent infringement case regarding myopia prevention book, it was analyzed that the claimer had the suspicion of abusing intellectual property, whose description of patent itself was improper. It was decided to dismiss the claimer’s requests on all claimants due to proof failure. Recently, the concerning patent was reexamined to be invalid by national patent authority, and the settlement mode of this case was confirmed by the profession. We also carried out patent commission law enforcement in districts and cities. In Jiaozhou, Pingdu, Jimo, Laoshan, Huangdao and High-tech Zone, law enforcement for patent commission were conducted which solved the shortage of municipal patent law enforcers, moved the enforcement places forwards and improved the enforcement efficiency.

449 various trademark illegal cases were investigated by the citywide industrial and commercial system, up 17.23% over the same period of the previous year. RMB 1,580,900 yuan was fined, among which there were 419 patent infringement and counterfeit cases, fine of RMB 1,500,400 (45 cases that the infringement of foreign trademark registers’ benefits were investigated and dealt with, fine of RMB 124,300); 30 general trademark illegal cases, fine of RMB 80,500; 25,359 infringement commodities confiscated and destroyed; 199,530 trademark labels confiscated and destroyed. Six illegal activities that special names, packages and decorations of famous commodities were used unauthorized and similarly were investigated in this year. 11 false presentation illegal behaviors to forge or infringe certified marks, famous-brand and high-quality product marks, and to cause misunderstanding of commodity quality were investigated and dealt with. We organized special law-enforcement activities to investigate the infringement of “Jimo Wine”, “Mengniu Telunsu” and guaranteed the health and safety of the public. We assisted Tsingtao Beer, Aucma and Hisense to crack down on counterfeit goods and protect their rights outside Shandong, helped Tsingtao Beer Group to check and detain infringed and counterfeit beer 726,000 boxes, 507,000 sets of infringed Laoshan Beer trademarks, whose values were RMB 13,400,000. A special coverage was made at the news channel in CCTV. We cleaned the infringed Aucma and Hisense kitchen utensils and electrical appliances in Jimo small commodity market. 1,200,000 sets of infringed products were uncovered, whose value was more than RMB 80,000. During the national games, 3,862 law-enforcing officers were called in the industrial and commercial system who inspected 10,850 enterprises and self-employed households as well as 318 wholesale and pedlar’s markets; 95 important areas were regulated, and 65 collective supervision law-enforcing activities were conducted to effectively protect lawful benefits of right holders with special marks.

43 copyright administrative law-enforcement cases were investigated by the citywide copyright system, among which there were 36 cases to be arranged to order corrections, one case of copyright infringement to be fined, and four copyright infringement disputes were mediated. The amount concerning the cases was over two million yuan. In the software infringement case to mediate one industrial company in Qingdao, in full consideration of the dilemma that enterprise faced in the financial crisis, its normal production and operation were assured when the right holders’ lawful interests were protected to the greatest extent. It was approved by both parties, and finally a settlement agreement on RMB 370,000 software genuine solution was made. We also conducted special activities for managing illegal preassemble and sales of computer software, and took various rental counters, booths in large computer market and malls as key points to examine. In the important domains of internet TV and movie dissemination, literature websites and internet news transfer, we supervised 30 large websites and internet units initiatively, and investigated the infringement events.

525 measures to protect intellectual property were taken by Qingdao Customs, up 58.6%, and 2,062,000 pieces of goods with infringement suspicion, up 47.1%. Among these measures, 102 protection measures were taken for freight channels, and 38 cases were registered up 18.7%. The main characteristics were that the infringed goods were mainly bearing, clothes and hats. The cases of mail and express delivery increased rapidly, and major and typical cases had great social influence. The case seized by Qingdao Liuting Airport Customs that a Korean tourist carried infringing articles to leave was selected one of Top 10 Cases of China Customs Intellectual Property by General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China. On April 26, this intellectual property infringement case investigated by Qingdao Customs was specially reported by Law Today in CCTV. On December 25, as for the infringement case that a company in Shenzhen misrepresented the commodity name to export counterfeit clothes and medicine, which was investigated and transferred to public security station by Qingdao Customs, two defendants (one was Korean) were judged fixed-term imprisonment by the court. In the cases that were transferred by customs system and given criminal sanctions, it was the first one that the foreigner took the rap which was judged by the court and it raised great concerns from all social sectors.

20 intellectual property infringement cases were registered and investigated, 19 cases were solved, and 20 suspects were captured by citywide security public stations of all levels. The trademark label case of infringing “Wong Lo Kat” was successfully solved within 24 hours, one main suspect was captured, 962 boxes (269,360 bottles in total) of infringed “Wong Lo Kat” registered cans, 350,000 pieces of can semi-manufactured slices, 137 boxes (443,000 pieces) of can bottom caps, and one production equipment were seized. Besides, many certificates including financial account books and sales vouchers were captured. Meanwhile, video to supervise production process inside the plant was seized. The firsthand evidence to directly prove criminal facts was obtained. The captured amount was the most since the trademark owner Zhejiang JDB Beverage Co., Ltd. cracked down counterfeit goods across the country. The Economic Investigation Team of Licang Subbureau uncovered nine cases of illegally managing pirated disks, and five cases of illegally operating false cigarettes which frightened the criminal offenders in such commercial domain and protected market order. The Economic Investigation Team of Jiaonan Subbureau uncovered the case that Yang Chao infringed business secrets. The Economic Investigation Team of Shibei Subbureau uncovered that Lin Guohua counterfeited registered trademark.

In the intellectual property field, 304 civil cases, 14 criminal cases (10 cases of copyright infringements, four cases of selling goods with registered trademarks), and one administrative case were accepted by two levels of citywide courts. When the civil cases of intellectual property accepted by the intermediate people’s court increased by 40% over the same period of the previous year, the above case solution rate within the judgment limit was 100%. In 2009, 71 intellectual property cases involving foreign interests were accepted by Qingdao Intermediate People’s Court. The parties included the USA, France, Japan, Germany, Italy, Denmark, United Arab Emirates, and Hong Kong. Many international famous brands were engaged, e.g., Adidas and Nike of the USA, Crocodile of France, Puma of Germany, Toyota of Japan, etc. None of the foreign intellectual property owners appealed. Abu Dhabi National Oil Company wrote a letter to our foreign affairs department for thanks. In 2009, two levels of our people’s courts exerted more efforts to mediate intellectual property cases, and there was no petition letter and appeal to higher authorities for help in the intellectual property cases. The mediation and lawsuit withdrawal rate of civil cases handled by Qingdao Intermediate People’s Court and Shinan People’s Court were 45% and 56% respectively.

5. Strengthen propagation and international exchange, and advocate intellectual property culture

In November, 2009, 2009 (the Third) China Trademark Festival was held in Qingdao. Mr. Jiang Zhenghua, vice chairman of the 10^th Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, Mr. Fu Shuangjian, deputy chairman of State Administration for Industry & Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, and Mr. Wang Junmin, vice governor and member of standing committee of Shandong Provincial Committee attended the opening ceremony and addressed. Mr. Xia Geng, mayor of Qingdao, and Mr. Li Jianzhong, chairman of China Trademark Association were present in that opening ceremony. 90 guests from over 20 countries and areas including World Intellectual Property Organization, International Trademark Association, EU, the USA and Japan participated in this festival. The subject of “implementing trademark strategy, and building innovative country” run through this festival. A series of rich and colorful activities were held, e.g., China Trademark Annual Meeting, Cooperation Development Summit of Sino-foreign Trademark Agencies, Special Agricultural Products and Geographic Mark Fair, China Trademark Contest, etc. The participants were the most compared with former ones. Qingdao Industrial and Commercial Administration Bureau was conferred the Outstanding Contribution Award.

In July, 2009, the First Sino-Korea Appearance Design Protection Forum was hosted by Qingdao. Mr. He Hua, deputy director of State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China, Mr. Yu Zongjun, director of Examination Bureau of Korean Industrial Property Office, Mr. Yu Zaixian, consul-general of Korea in Qingdao, Mr. Li Gang, deputy secretary-general of Qingdao Municipal Government attended the opening ceremony and addressed. Over 100 Chinese enterprise representatives and 40 Korean enterprise representatives attended this forum. They discussed deeply and communicated regarding appearance design protection, which enhanced mutual understanding and deepened their cooperations. In October, a research and study class of Intellectual Property System, Sci-tech, Economic & Trade Development of the Developing Countries was held. 39 department-level officials from 22 countries (e.g., Pakistan, Georgia) attended the research and studied for a month in Qingdao. Our domestic intellectual property was publicized, and friendly exchanges with other countries were deepened.

With the issuance of Outline of Qingdao Intellectual Property Strategy as a turning point, our city carried out varied propaganda activities, and more than 3000 volumes of the Outline were issued in total. During “4.26” Intellectual Property Propaganda Week, main media in our city cooperated with Qingdao Intellectual Property Bureau, and conducted activities actively. The award-winning quiz of intellectual property was held at Qingdao News Web by Qingdao Daily Press, patent agencies were created to publicize and propaganda by Qingdao Financial Daily Press, and typical cases of intellectual property were reported continuously in Online Law by Qingdao TV Station. The information desk and audio-visual product identification point were set on site of “Collective Information Day of Building Safe Qingdao”. More than 100 persons were received for consultation, over 200 pieces of propaganda materials were issued, and 120 questions were solved. In April, a feature program for World Intellectual Property Day was broadcasted by Law Toady in CCTV, where two cases that Koreas violated intellectual property and uncovered by Qingdao public security organ were reported. During the 19^th Book Fair, 260 m² exhibition area for intellectual property achievements was set in Qingdao assembly place. We organized tens of thousand of people to sign their names for “Genuine Qingdao, Copyright Cooperation”, issued copyright propaganda volumes, and answered questions on site. During the Second China International Copyright Fair, we organized famous enterprises and folk artisans to publicize the meaning, function and means of intellectual property in forms of product display, interacting performances, etc. During the 11^th National Games, we publicized the importance of protecting intellectual property in forms of speech, bulletin board and banner to improve the intellectual property awareness of the masses. Besides, we had informal discussions with famous enterprises to help them search the leaks in intellectual property to check erroneous ideas at the outset.

6. Face up to the opportunities and challenges of intellectual property, and create new situations

At present, we are going through a tremendous and deep-going transformation. In terms of international level, as the international competitive pattern, posture and method develop toward complication in the post-crisis age, the developed countries are trying to seize new advantageous opportunities to develop by the arrangement and operation of intellectual property which will limit the development of our country. From the perspective of domestic level, if our country wants to break the blockage and suppress from the developed countries, win the advantageous opportunities of market development, and realize the urgent goals of transferring economic increase mode and adjusting economic structure, we must give full play to intellectual property system which can basically protect innovators’ lawful interests and encourage innovation.

Our city has made significant progress in implementing intellectual property strategy and protecting intellectual property while it is also faced with some challenges and deficiencies: firstly, the consciousness that the public respects and protects intellectual property is still weak, especially the basic knowledge of intellectual property and legal knowledge of the public are to improve and strengthen. Secondly, the administrative and criminal enforcement capacities to protect intellectual property are still insufficient, collaborative and efficient administrative enforcement system of intellectual property is to strengthen, and long-term supervision system is to further enhance. Thirdly, original innovative capacities of enterprises and public institutions are to improve. We have a small number of core technologies of proprietary intellectual property. The core technologies and equipment that enterprises need have to be imported, whose competitiveness in the international market is limited. The enterprises’ awareness of intellectual property development, utilization and protection are to improve. Fourthly, due to legal consciousness shortage and interest drive, the cases of intellectual property infringement are increasing, the infringing methods become shadier and the investigation difficulty become bigger.

At present, our city is at a crucial age of mode conversion and structure adjustment, and intellectual property task is more arduous. Under the guide of the 17^th Congress and the 4^th Plenary Session of the 17^th CPC, we will thoroughly apply the scientific outlook on development, conscientiously strengthen senses of mission, urgency and responsibility, mobilize all social forces, center on the key parts of urban economic and social developments, emphasize characteristics, forge ahead with determination, give full play to the important functions in mode conversion and structure adjustment of intellectual property system, and open up new progress in intellectual property to strive for realizing our strategic goal of intellectual property, and build a strong, civilized, harmonious modern international city.