Thursday, March 25, 2010

Google finally left China

Is there a Google search engine in China? Yes or No?

Here is the story. Rumor has it, about 40 years ago. When Henry Kissinger visited China in the ice-breaking diplomacy, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai was asked whether there were sex workers in China. Premier Zhou said, "Yes," with a pause, and he continued "in Taiwan". And the whole China admired Zhou's wisdom, as he did not admit that there are sex worker in mainland China, in addition, restate their position that Taiwan is part of China.

Now, any one who asks "Is there a Google search engine in China?"

The answer is "Yes", .... "it is in Hong Kong."

Labels: ,

Thursday, February 11, 2010

“Big Cleaning” with Pomelo-Leaf before Chinese New Year

One of our Chinese New Year traditions is, to clean our bodies and hair with pomelo-leaf (???)! The best day to do the cleaning (not only body and hair, also the household furniture and utilities) is usually the 28th day of the last month before Chinese New Year, i.e. 11 Feb 2010 according to the Christian calendar in this year.

It is believed that pomelo-leaf is able to wash away the dirt, to cast away the evil spirits and to get ready for the brand new year!

Incidentally, just the right timing to see a half-page announcement of a “Pomelo Leaf Body Wash” in one of the local newspapers on 10 February which is the last fourth day before Chinese new year!

This half-page announcement mentions about the “Utility Patent” and “Trade Mark” in both China and Hong Kong. They started to apply for the patent in 2003 and successfully got it in 2005.  

While reading between lines, there is a hidden story of the Lee’s family for three generations. This family is given a name as “The King of Pomelo for three generations” (????) whom claims to conduct research and development on pomelo-leaf for a few decades. They have successfully added a particular element “flavonoids” (???) which is refined from pomelo-leaf into their product toiletries (including body wash, shampoo and facial wash).

This announcement serves to remind the public that there is only one brand of “pomelo-leaf” as well as to declare that this is now a legal case for any infringement.

Apart from using their specific products, I plan to buy some original pomelo-leaf (usually a few bunches for 10 Hong Kong Dollars) from the market for my body-cleaning tonight! I believe no one from the vegetable stalls will care about the “utility patent”, “trade mark” of the fresh pomelo-leaf.

Hope everyone has a brand new year of Tiger!

P.S. For those who want to check it out, the announced patent is CN03146856.X.

Labels:

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

The Hong Kong Innovation-Knowledge Enterprise Award

Congratulations to one of my clients, who is one of the award-winners of the “Innovation-Knowledge Enterprise Award” which is co-organized by the Hong Kong Productivity Council and Guangdong Provincial Intellectual Property Office since 2004.

This award is targeted with a view to increase the Intellectual Property (“IP”) management capability of Hong Kong and mainland enterprises. When the enterprises are facing the arising challenges from the Pearl River Delta region due to the economic upsurge, this award serves as a tool to upgrade them from Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) and Original Brand Manufacturer (OBM).

As it is commonly known, or recognized, that there are tremendous infringement products from the mainland China, this award become more important, meaningful and perhaps sarcastic!

My client is a product development and investment company. The main business is to identify product improvement opportunity and invest in the design, whereby intellectual protection is the major vehicle to protect the return on investment.

My client is involved in inventions related to product improvement and new product design. The areas of improvement include improvisation on functionality, durability, cost in production and maintenance. They have the core design and management team resides in Hong Kong and has a manufacturing facility in Dongguan where a team of draftsmen, testing engineers and production workers helps the design, prototyping, testing and pilot run process. With more than 150 workers, the Dongguan factory also produces products that export to North America, Europe and Middle East.

My client has applied and obtained more than 10 patents for design done before 2006. All of these patents are now commercialized and products being sold or licenses granted to US companies. Since 2006, the group has filed more than 15 patent applications per year in the PRC, United States, and European Community. Currently, they own more than 70 patents or patents pending right in these countries/community. Non-exclusive license rights for about one-third of patents pending are granted to companies which expects to market products using these new invention in their respective countries. Of course, we handle most of their intellectual property related work.

Further information about the Award can be found here:

http://www.hkpc.org/html/eng/award_schemes/award_schemes.jsp#awards6

http://www.itc.gov.hk/

http://www.cedb.gov.hk/about/index.htm

Labels: ,

Friday, May 18, 2007

Verdict is out - BT is illegal in Hong Kong

The verdict for the first BT case is out from the Court of Final Appeal, the Chan who used seeds to upload three copyright movies was found guilty and the three months sentence starts immediately. Chan went through the Magistrates Court, Appeal Court and the Court of Final Appeal is Chan's last chance for his case to be heart. It was reported that Chan admitted the act of uploading copyright material in the first caution statement after Customs and Excise Department raided his home. The later hearing was mostly related whether Chan's act was really an act to 'distribute' 'material' to the public.

Since the arrest, there is no other publicized arrest of the same nature in Hong Kong.

Labels: