In the News: Foreign Investment Law; Trademark Filings; IP Cases and Macao Gaming Laws
March 18, 2019 | BY
Marilyn RomeroThe National People's Congress approves a new comprehensive Foreign Investment Law; China plans to streamline trademark registrations; IP lawsuits soar in China for a second year, and Macao comes under pressure to improve its gaming regulations.
China passes comprehensive Foreign Investment Law
China's National People's Congress (NPC) has passed a new Foreign Investment Law that will come into effect on Jan. 1, 2020. The new law will improve the openness, transparency and predictability of the investment environment, and establish equal treatment for foreign and domestic investors, according to Zhang Yesui, an NPC spokesperson.
It also addresses concerns of foreign investors around technology transfers, a key bone of contention in China's current trade tensions with the U.S.
The new law will also apply nationwide restrictions on industries or activities that foreign businesses can operate in. It also affirms that the state should not expropriate assets from foreign investors except in special circumstances, and stipulates remittance freedoms.
China moves to regulate trademark filing
The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) has drafted measures that seek to regulate trademark registrations. The measures hope to streamline trademark registration procedure as well as reduce registration pendency. In addition, the CNIPA also hopes to cut down registration cost and lessen available registration sources, among others. It also has taken note of the rampant practice of hoarding trademark registrations to resell them at inflated prices, rather than for actual use. According to the agency, such acts of abnormal trademark registrations severely corrupt market order, and thus need to be curbed with more legislation. In crafting the measures, CNIPA aims to shape a long-term mechanism to prevent such acts by improving the trademark regime by introducing new legislation. The draft was published on CNIPA's website and will be available for public comments until March 14.
More from CLP: State Intellectual Property Office, Several Provisions for Regulating the Application for the Registration of Trademarks (Draft for Comments); Supreme People's Court, Annual Report on Intellectual Property Cases (2017) (Abstract); The SPC boosts trademark protection, tackles bad faith
China intellectual property rights cases continue to soar
Many more cases related to intellectual property rights were handled by the courts in China in 2018 compared to the previous year, according to government data. The hike in the number of cases relating to intellectual property rights comes as Washington and Beijing are mired in a trade row with concerns over the issue. According to Zhou Qiang, chief justice of the Supreme People's Court, 288,000 first instance IP-related cases were concluded in 2018, up 41.8 percent from the year before. Moreover, it was the second consecutive year when the number of IP cases processed by the courts went up by more than 40 percent. In 2017, the growth of the cases was also over 40 percent, with the courts handling a total of 213,480 cases.
China urges Macao to beef up gaming regulations
The Chinese government has urged Macao to strengthen its regulatory regime on the gaming sector, as well as shore up initiatives meant to diversify the industry by way of offering products that are not related to gaming. According to Fu Ziying, the Beijing official acting as the chief day-to-day contact point between the city and the Chinese national authorities, such moves are meant to enhance the attractiveness of Macao to other markets. Fu, who is also the director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Macao Special Administrative Region, made the remarks in Beijing during the National People's Congress. Macao delegates are also participating in the Two Sessions annual meeting this year.
More from CLP: Supreme People's Court, Arrangement on Reciprocal Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters by the Courts of the Mainland and of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; Zhuhai City, Tentative Measures for the Administration of the Pilot Foreign-invested Equity Investment Enterprise Project; In the News: Beijing Unveils Greater Bay Area Plan; and US Holds off More China Tariffs
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