- Beijing

Appeal over alleged image misuse

Sinopharm lodged a copyright appeal against the Beijing subsidiary of US Getty Images with Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court, after a ruling was made in favor of the picture provider. Getty Images claimed that Sinopharm used three pictures for commercial use on its microblog without authorization. The pharmaceutical group said that forwarding content containing the pictures in issues edited by news portals should not be defined as infringement. The appeal was heard in early April, pending further investigation for decision.

Chinacourt.org

- Shandong

Cash from creatives and copyrights

Copyright licensing and creative industries in the province created added value of nearly 200 billion yuan ($32.2 billion) in 2012, taking 5.4 percent of the province's GDP that year, according to a summit of creative industries held last week in Qingdao. The share in Qingdao and provincial capital Jinan is more than 7 percent. In 2006 the industries generated 60 billion yuan and took 2.7 percent in provincial GDP.

Qilu Evening News

- Jiangsu

Competition to improve design

The Zhenjiang industry and commerce administration held the city's first trademark design contest. The competition aimed to improve trademark design and quality and raise people's IP awareness. Of the 60 applications submitted by 14 trademark agencies, judges including art and design experts selected the top 10.

Jingjiang Evening News

- Hunan

Development for approved zone

The Changsha Economic and Technical Development Zone is the first in the province to be recognized as a national IP demonstration zone by the State Intellectual Property Office. The zone is home to five national-level R&D centers along with more than 190 companies that have at least one patent each. Local companies won five Awards for Outstanding Chinese Patented Invention, the top patent award nationwide. The administration of the zone plans to invest 200 million yuan in the next three years to recruit more experts.

International Business Daily

- Hebei

New facility boosts desalination

The largest seawater desalination facility in China recently started operation in Shenhua Group's Cangzhou power plant. The facility uses proprietary designs and installation techniques and has a daily production capacity of 25,000 tons of fresh water. The new addition means the power plant now has a total desalination capacity of 57,500 tons a day.

xinhuanet.com

- Guangdong

Patent applications soar

The province's LED industry applied for more than 50,000 patents by the end of last year, taking up 26.6 percent of all applications nationwide. More than 90 percent of the applications were filed by companies in the Pearl River Delta region, with Shenzhen city topping the list with nearly 20,000 applications. Companies, universities, industry associations and testing organizations in the province have joined to boost the industry.

Science and Technology Daily

- Hainan

Trademark infringement crackdown

The industry and commerce authorities in the province investigated 686 trademark infringements in 2013, increasing nearly 10 percent over the previous year, according to data released at a meeting last week. The total fines surpassed 6 million yuan last year, doubling the amount of 2012. The province now owns more than 28,000 trademarks, a 97 percent rise over the number of 2009.

hinews.cn

(China Daily 04/16/2014 page17)